The Russian has often beaten the Swiss star in practice sessions but never in competition, and once again Federer showed what a supreme exponent of the art of match play he is.

Whenever there was a hint of trouble on his serve, he found a change of gear, and during a rally he had the capacity suddenly to prepare a little earlier for a ball, to strike it a little more cleanly, and to produce an unexpectedly telling blow.

It was also Federer's best performance so far in the tournament, which is his first since winning the Australian Open more than a month ago, and increased the feeling that this will become the first title he has won four times.

"Mikhail had many chances early on, when he could have got a lead, but I got him back," said Federer, who was soon into a 3-0 lead despite being love-40 in both his first two service games.

"It's hard when you get a start like he did, to stay positive. He knows I am going to pick up my game and then he's not going to get so many chances.

"In the second set I think I played great tennis and I am very happy with the way I played this time."

The crowd tried to raise Youzhny's morale when he was making his first attempt to hold serve in the second set, cheering him loudly. But the best he could manage was seven deuces and four game points before dropping his serve with a double fault.

Youzhny looked to have converted the second game point when he drove a ball hard and diagonally into the backhand corner and had Federer racing into a wide and deep position.

But from there the holder of three Grand Slams titles conjured an improbable flat backhand winner with his back half turned to the net, which flashed parallel to the sideline and a couple of inches inside it.

"That was crucial," said Federer. "He played the perfect point and I came up with a shot which not many guys can. There's not much you can do from back there. I chose the risky option and it shouldn't have paid off, but it did."

It paid off many-fold. It contributed to Federer making a killer break for 2-0, it made Youzhny pressure himself more to find the shots which would keep him out of trouble, and it helped end any doubt about the outcome of the contest.

It was over in 66 minutes and it increased the chances of an eagerly awaited rematch with Rafel Nadal, the 19-year-old world number two who beat Federer on the way to winning the French Open in Paris nine months ago. They have not played since.

Nadal was due to play the most surprising of the semi-finalists, Rainer Schuttler, the former world number five from Germany, who prior to this tournament had won only one match this year and only two since October, and been in danger of falling out of the top 100.