Nadal sets up mouth-watering final

Rafael Nadal brushed aside the challenge of Germany's Rainer Schuettler to advance to Sunday's Wimbledon final.

Nadal will face defending champion Roger Federer for the title for the third straight year after beating unseeded Schuettler 6-1 7-6 (7/3) 6-4 in a minute over two hours on Centre Court.

The second seed will therefore have another chance to become only the third man in the Open era - after Rod Laver and Bjorn Borg - to win the French Open and Wimbledon in the same year.

Federer will be seeking his sixth straight title after easing past Marat Safin in straight sets in the day's first semi-final.

Nadal breezed through the opening set in just 23 minutes, making just one unforced error as Schuettler looked drained from his epic quarter-final win over Arnaud Clement, at five hours and 12 minutes the joint second-longest match in Wimbledon history.

The 32-year-old stunned the Centre Court crowd by breaking Nadal for a 2-1 lead in the second set - only the fourth time in the championships Nadal had lost his serve.

But the nerves kicked in again as Schuettler tried to serve for the set at 5-4, two woeful forehands way over the baseline allowing Nadal to break back easily.

Nadal then raced into a 4-1 lead in the tie-break, aided by two more forehand errors from his opponent, and took it 7-3 for a two sets to love lead.

Nadal quickly broke serve in the third set to strengthen his stranglehold on the match.

Even Nadal's Hawk-Eye challenges were unerringly accurate and the Spaniard could even afford to squander three match points on Schuettler's serve before wrapping up victory.