SHANGHAI, Nov 19: Roger Federer scored the first 6-0 6-0 victory in the history of the season-ending Masters Cup on Saturday, crushing Argentine Gaston Gaudio to move within one win of a third straight Masters crown.

The world number one will play another Argentine, David Nalbandian, in Sunday’s final after Nalbandian beat Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko in the second semifinal in Shanghai.

Federer’s whitewash marked his 35th win in a row, improved his record for the year to 81-3 and was the most one-sided victory in 35 years of the competition.

It was also the first 6-0 6-0 win of Federer’s career and left Gaudio shell-shocked.

Only Ilie Nastase in 1971-73 and Ivan Lendl in 1985-87 have won three in a row at the season-ending extravaganza.

Federer had won all four of his previous matches against Gaudio and he blitzed through the first set in 27 minutes to leave Gaudio looking shell-shocked in the cavernous arena.

Gaudio served 10 double-faults to aid Federer’s cause and was powerless to prevent Federer wrapping up an awesome victory in just 50 minutes.

Federer’s 35th consecutive victory gave him the joint fifth longest winning streak in the men’s game alongside Bjorn Borg in 1978 and Thomas Muster in 1995.

Federer is still 11 victories short of Argentine Guillermo Vilas’s record of 46 straight wins in 1977.

Semifinals results:

Roger Federer (SUI) bt Gaston Gaudio (ARG) 6-0, 6-0; David Nalbandian (ARG) bt Nikolay Davydenko (RUS) 6-0, 7-5.—Agencies