Everyone talks about seven-time Wimbledon champion Roger Federer getting older. The Swiss right-hander will turn 36 in less than a month, on 8 August. But at least one of his peers remains unconvinced that he is, in fact, aging.

“I don’t see anything that would indicate Roger is getting older or anything like that. I think he’s just proving his greatness in our sport,” said Tomas Berdych, who fell to Federer 7-6(4), 7-6(4), 6-4 in the Wimbledon semi-finals on Friday. “If you look at the other guys who are 35, 36, I think you can very clearly see that the age and the years on tour are affecting them. But not with him.”

The ageless champion will play in his 11^th Wimbledon final on Sunday when he faces Croatian Marin Cilic. Berdych, who had beaten Federer during their last match-up at SW19, during the 2010 semi-finals, dug in against the fifth seed on Centre Court.

View Federer v Cilic FedEx ATP Head2Head Record

The 6’5” Berdych struck nine aces and saved seven of nine break points against the 18-time Grand Slam champion. Berdych was often the aggressor in the semi-final, charging the net 36 times and winning 20 of those attempts (56 per cent).

“I was trying to find my way. So whatever was possible to do I was trying. I also tried to come a little bit more to the net,” said Berdych, who fell to 6-19 against Federer in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series. “But obviously it’s very, very difficult. Roger doesn’t give you any rhythm at all. He’s playing barely with any mistakes. He was controlling the game pretty well. Even those two sets in the tie-breaks, I was still the one facing a couple more break points down… It just shows how well he’s playing right now.”

Berdych was trying to reach his second Wimbledon final, after falling to Rafael Nadal in the 2010 title match. The 31-year-old Czech did well to repeat his semi-final appearance of a year ago. Berdych beat two Top 10 players – No. 8 Dominic Thiem and No. 3 Novak Djokovic – en route to his third Wimbledon semi-final.

“I think I played really good tennis throughout the whole tournament. But I just unfortunately faced a guy who’s playing his best,” Berdych said.

The World No. 15 said he remains undeterred by falling one win short of reaching his second Grand Slam final. “On one hand it is hard. On the other one, it’s a part of the sport I’m doing,” he said. “I’m still fully committed to being around and trying to fight for the results.”

In addition to fighting for tennis’ ultimate prize in Sunday’s Wimbledon final, both Roger Federer and Marin Cilic will be playing for important rankings milestones.

Federer will, for the first time in almost 11 months, reclaim a place within the Top 3 of the Emirates ATP Rankings if he wins a record eighth title at SW19. But, more importantly, he will greatly boost his chances of returning to World No. 1 later this year after a remarkable comeback season. The Swiss slipped from No. 3 to No. 4 on 22 August last year and, after missing the remainder of the season after last year’s Wimbledon, slipped to as low as No. 17 before winning the Australian Open in January.

Federer has remained in the Top 10 ever since, but slipped from No. 4 to No. 5 in recent months after skipping the clay-court swing to rest his 35-year-old body.

Should he win his 19th Grand Slam title Sunday, Federer will turn up the heat on Rafael Nadal in what increasingly looks like a two-man battle for the coveted year-end No. 1 Emirates ATP Ranking. Federer would move to No. 3 within 920 points of Nadal and to within 1,205 points of current World No. 1 Andy Murray. (Murray appears to have only a very remote chance of finishing the year No. 1 because he has 5,460 points to defend after Wimbledon following his stunning finish to the end of the 2016 season. In contrast, Nadal will defend just 370 points and Federer has no points to defend for the rest of the season.)

Federer holds the record for most weeks (302) spent at No. 1. He last held top spot in the first week of November, 2012.

Learn How The Emirates ATP Rankings Work

Cilic is now at a career-high No. 6 in the Emirates ATP Rankings and will crack the Top 5 for the first time if he adds a second major to the US Open crown he won in 2014. Under that scenario, Federer would remain at No. 6.

Novak Djokovic will move ahead of Stan Wawrinka when the new rankings are released Monday. If Federer is the Wimbledon champion and leaps three places to No. 3, Djokovic will be remain at 4 while passing Wawrinka, who will slip to No. 5. Cilic will remain at No. 6. If Cilic wins the final, Djokovic will move to No. 3, Wawrinka will slip to No. 4 and Cilic will be No. 5.

Following his Wimbledon semi-final loss last season and his six-month layoff last year, Roger Federer had to doubt if he’d ever return to the Wimbledon final. He doesn’t need to wonder any longer.

The seven-time champion will play in his 11^th final at The Championships after overcoming some big hitting from Czech Tomas Berdych 7-6(4), 7-6(4), 6-4 on Friday during their semi-final. Federer still has not dropped a set at SW19 this fortnight and will be the favourite when he plays for his record eighth Wimbledon title and 19^th Grand Slam crown on Sunday.

Federer will meet seventh seed Marin Cilic, who beat No. 24 seed Sam Querrey of the U.S. 7-6(6), 4-6, 7-6(3), 7-5 in Friday’s first semi-final. Cilic, the 2014 US Open titlist, reaches his second Grand Slam final.

Federer leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 6-1, including a 2016 Wimbledon quarter-final win. But the Croatian held three match points during that match and has beaten Federer in the latter stages of a Grand Slam. The 6’6″ right-hander upset Federer in the 2014 US Open semi-finals.

“I’m in for a tough one. We had a great one here last year. At the US Open, he played unreal there against me,” Federer said.

• See Federer v Cilic FedEx ATP Head2Head Record

If Cilic celebrates his first Wimbledon crown, he’ll jump to No. 5 in the Emirates ATP Rankings on Monday when the new list is published. If Federer wins the title, he’ll rise to No. 3.

Sam Querrey expressed an inner-belief that his best tennis is around the corner on Friday following a semi-final exit to Marin Cilic at The Championships on Friday.

“Before I go for major titles, I need to take some baby steps before that,” said Querrey. “I do feel I can. I feel that if I play well, my level is at a high enough point where I can beat those top guys.”

The American is now looking for prolonged consistency having beaten the defending Wimbledon champions over the past two years – Novak Djokovic in the 2016 third round and Andy Murray in this year’s quarter-finals. He also beat Rafael Nadal in the Abierto Mexicano Telcel final in March.

“To have those three moments, where I really feel like I played well and beat a lot of good players, hopefully there’s more moments like that to come,” said Querrey. “I feel like I’ve really had some ups over the last year, and hopefully there are more of those to come as I get a little bit older.

“I really just [need to] commit to the style of play and be a little more aggressive. I think in the past maybe I haven’t done that. I seem to commit to that a little better here on the grass. I think if I just do that at the other Slams, I think it will be a little bit better.”

The 29-year-old Querrey insisted that it wasn’t the fatigue of three consecutive five-set wins that played a factor in his loss to Cilic in his first Grand Slam championship semi-final.

“I was actually more nervous against Andy in the quarter-finals. Today I felt pretty good. The first set we traded holds early. That really settled me… I didn’t really have any questions about myself going in. I knew I was a good tennis player. I felt like I had this in me. To do this has been fun. Hopefully I can do more of it.”

With the help of his coach Craig Boynton, the World No. 28 will also be hoping to move closer to his career-high of No. 17 in the Emirates ATP Rankings (31 January 2011) over the course of the hard-court U.S. summer circuit.