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Federer into Milan final

Switzerland's Roger Federer has booked himself a place in the final of the Milan Indoors tennis tournament after beating Russia's Yevgeny Kafelnikov in three sets.

The 19-year-old from Basel made a dream start against the world number seven, taking the first set 6-2. Looking to make his third ever appearance in an ATP final, Federer had to wait a while after losing the second set on a tie-break, 6-7 (4-7).

But the Swiss youngster struck back in style to clinch the deciding set 6-3.

In Sunday’s final Federer is due to meet 26-year-old Frenchman, Julien Boutter. Although he is currently 40 places below Federer in the world rankings, Boutter was the winner of their only previous encounter in Grenoble last season.

Boutter beat Britain’s Greg Rusedski on Saturday to secure himself his first ever appearance in an ATP final.

Federer’s two previous final appearances both came last season. Last February he lost the Marseille final on a tie-break against fellow Swiss player Marc Rosset. In October he was to miss out again, this time in front of a home town crowd, losing the Basel Indoors tournament in five sets to Sweden’s Thomas Enqvist.

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SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR