Roger Federer cruised into the final of the ATP grass-court tournament here for the seventh time with a 6-1, 6-4 victory against unseeded Russian Mikhail Youzhny in Saturday's semifinal.
In the other all-German semifinal, Tommy Haas got past Philipp Kohlschreiber 7-6(5), 7-5.
Federer, the Swiss second seed showed few signs of fatigue despite scraping past Canada's Milos Raonic in a third-set tie-break in the last eight on Friday, and needed barely an hour to see off the world No. 31 Youzhny.
Federer fired down eight aces, and remains on course to win the Wimbledon warm-up event for the sixth time.
He later claimed that saving three break points in the fifth game of the opening set was vital to his ultimately comfortable win.
Federer's previous victories in Halle came in 2003-06 and again in 2008, while he also lost the final to Lleyton Hewitt in 2010.
Bad day for Indians
Meanwhile, in London it was a bad day in office for the Indians as the pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna, and Leander Paes and his new South African partner, Kevin Anderson, crashed out of the AEGON Championships after losing their respective matches.
While Bhupathi and Bopanna lost their quarterfinal to Max Mirnyi of Belarus and Canada's Daniel Nestor 7-6(7), 6-4, Paes and Anderson failed to clear the second-round hurdle, going down to the Serbian pair of Janko Tipsarevic and Nenad Zimonjic 2-6, 6-4, 10-7.
The results:
At Halle (ATP Gerry Weber Open): Semifinals: Roger Federer bt Mikhail Youzhny 6-1, 6-4; Tommy Haas bt Philipp Kohlschreiber 7-6(5), 7-5.
At London (ATP AEGON Championships): Semifinals: Marin Cilic bt Sam Querrey 6-3, 3-6, 6-3; David Nalbandian bt Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 6-4.
Quarterfinals: Nalbandian bt Xavier Malisse 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-4; Sam Querrey bt Ivan Dodig 7-5, 3-6, 6-3.
Doubles: Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor bt Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna 7-6(7), 6-4; Janko Tipsarevic and Nenad Zimonjic bt Leander Paes and Kevin Anderson 2-6, 6-4, 10-7.— Agencies
