Roger Cup: Roger Federer rolls into final

Roger Federer will be seeking his third career Rogers Cup title when he competes in Sunday's final at Montreal.

The Swiss star reached the championship match with a 6-3, 7-6 (5) victory over Dutchman Robin Haase in Saturday's semifinal matchup.

Federer won the Rogers Cup in 2004 and 2006 when it was held in Toronto. In the final, he will face fourth-seeded Alexander Zverev of Germany, who ended the impressive run of wild-card entrant Denis Shapovalov by beating the 18-year-old Canadian 6-4, 7-5.

Federer will be aiming for his sixth title of the year.

"Confidence can get you a long way, and if you're feeling fine physically and you are ready to fight mentally you have a lot of things in the bag," Federer said afterward. "And then the only thing that maybe is missing is practice, but sometimes practice is overrated. It's all about the matches at some stage.

"I'm happy I'm playing as well as I am this year on the match courts. At the end that's what matters because I spent hours and hours on the practice courts in the last year."

Federer served nine aces and hit 28 winners to improve to 35-2 on the season. He has won 16 consecutive matches.

It has been quite a season for the 36-year-old, who looked to be slowing down in recent years before this season's stunning resurgence.

"I'm very excited to be back in the finals," Federer said. "A bit surprising, to be quite honest, because I hadn't practiced much. I came from vacation, did some fitness, saw how I was feeling and said, 'You know what, I practiced so much the last year, let's go play some matches.'

"It's a big bonus right now and I hope I can play as free as I have so far in the finals tomorrow."

Haase, who hit 17 winners, made a later charge and forced a second-set tiebreak before Federer stymied the challenge to win the match.