Roger Federer celebrates his win over Marat Safin in the final of the Halle meet on Sunday. (Reuters)

Roger Federer was given the best Wimbledon warm-up he could have asked for by an inspired Marat Safin Sunday, the defending champion having to stretch himself almost to the limit to retain his Gerry Weber Open title.

Federer, who now travels to London in search of a hattrick of triumphs on the lawns of SW19, expected before this third Halle success that he would have his hands full against the second-seeded Russian and he was almost beaten in a tense two-hour tussle.

Safin, who took Federer’s Australian Open crown in January after overcoming the Swiss master in an epic semi-final, reflected on two crucial mistakes ? one by the umpire and one by himself ? in the final set of a 6-4, 6-7, 6-4 confrontation as being the difference between winning and losing.

He takes consolation, however, from producing what he regarded as his best performance on his worst service and travels to The Championships confident of at last justifying his high seeding in a tournament which has seen him progress to the quarter-finals only once.

Provided that a nagging left knee problem does not worsen over the next week ? the big Russian will see a specialist in Milan ? Safin says that he is for once looking forward to playing on the biggest stage of all and expects to do well there.

“I feel in better shape than when I lost to Goran Ivanisevic in the quarters there four years ago because I’ve played some great tennis here,” said Safin, a leading member of the “grass is for cows” club, “and I intend to come back here next year to try to do even better. I hope to do well at Wimbledon. I played the best player in the world and I came close to beating him. You have to believe in yourself on grass.”

He will be hoping that Federer changes his schedule to provide him with a better chance of winning a grasscourt event next year.

Federer, who briefly alienated himself from a crowd who have come to adore him by beating local favourite Tommy Haas in Saturday’s semi-final (Safin overcame Guillermo Canas), was non-committal about next year.

“If I win Wimbledon again then it makes sense for me to come back here because it’s proving a good omen for me,” he said. “But if I lose in the first round next week, then maybe I’ll have a rethink.”

There is little to suggest that Federer, who first came to prominence at Wimbledon when he ended Pete Sampras’s 31-match winning sequence there in 2001, will not live up to his reputation this year.

His current grasscourt record is the best since Bjorn Borg embarked on a run of 41 wins in the 1970s and the five victories Federer has enjoyed over the last week in Halle have extended his unbeaten streak on the surface to 29 matches.

This is his 29th career title and he has not lost any of the 20 finals he has contested since Jiri Novak beat him in Gstaad two years ago.

Federer will now go home in his car ? “I wish there was more time to celebrate” ? and plans to arrive in London Tuesday for practice.