Milos Raonic roars back to oust Roger Federer and reach Wimbledon final

The Canadian will face either Andy Murray or Tomas Berdych in Sunday’s final after recording a 6-3 6-7(3) 4-6 7-5 6-3 win on Centre Court.

It always looked like there wouldn’t be much between Federer and Raonic, world No.3 and No.7 respectively, with the latter using his imposing serve to take the first set as he looked to stage a coup on Federer’s turf.

But Federer started to up the ante in the second set and took it to tie-break, with one of Raonic’s all-too frequent errors handing it to the Swiss star.

With the 34-year-old looking ever stronger, he took the third set more comfortably as a match largely played through service rather than rallies went on.

Raonic’s adventure at SW19 looked over when a fourth-set onslaught from Federer – now leading two sets to one – created numerous break opportunities, but the Swiss maestro was unable to capitalise as it drifted towards a tie-break.

But suddenly, with Raonic leading 6-5, the Federer serve cracked from 40-15 as two successive double faults invited Raonic into the most unlikely of deuces. The Canadian took his opportunity. Federer looked beaten.

Buoyant, the 25-year-old Raonic raced into an early break advantage in the final set and kept his nerve in partisan Fed-heavy surroundings to remain on course for a first Slam title.

"It's an incredible comeback for me," said the sixth seed, who will be seeking to win his first grasscourt title when he meets 2013 champion Andy Murray on Sunday in a repeat of last month's Queen's Club final.

"I was struggling throughout the third and fourth sets, he was playing some really good tennis and just on a little opening I managed to turn it around and finish it off in a great match.

"I showed a lot of emotion today, always positive, and that's what got me through. Mentally I had one of my best matches in my career and I think that's what made the biggest difference."

Federer, who had survived a five-set thriller two days ago against Croatian Marin Cilic, added: "He fought. He believed, like I did against Cilic. Credit to him for hanging in there."