The run of 17 consecutive represents the 20-time Grand Slam champions best-ever start to a season, beating his previous record of 16 straight wins from the 2006 season.

The 36-year-old did not have it all his own way in the early stages of his semi-final against world number 49 Ćorić, losing the first set 7-5 – the first set he has dropped this tournament.

He recovered to claim the next two sets 6-4, 6-4 to record a 2-1 victory in this ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event.

Following his victory, Federer said he was lucky to have made it through.

"I should have lost a match," he said.

"It didn’t come easy, so I had to go get it.

"You need to be match-tough, you need to be confident, have experience, and I think I have a bit of all of that right now, and that’s the reason I won."

Federer is now due to face Argentinian sixth seed Juan Martín del Potro, who recorded a comfortable 6-3, 6-3 victory over Canada’s Milos Raonic, who lost the 2016 Wimbledon final to Federer.

After his win, del Potro, who has had three operations on his wrist in the last four years, gave the reason behind his victory.

"It was surprising to see him [Raonic] serving not too hard, and I broke his serve very quick in both sets," he said.

"That gave me the control of the match."

Federer and del Potro are scheduled to meet in the final tomorrow after the women's final between Japan's Naomi Osaka and Russia's Daria Kasatkina.