Federer’s preparations for Wimbledon earlier this year took a blow when he suffered a shock defeat against Coric in the Halle Open final.
The Swiss star then went on to surrender his crown at the All England Club with a quarter-final defeat to Kevin Anderson.
Since the defeat to Coric, Federer has struggled for form as he also lost in the Cincinnati Masters final and was dumped out of the US Open in the fourth round.
But he his luck may now have come around full circle as he gets a chance to get back at the Croatian in Shanghai.
“I will have to play aggressive against Coric again,” Federer said.
The 37-year-old booked his place in the semi-finals by beating Kei Nishikori 6-4, 7-6(4) on Friday.
And Federer thanked his luck after winning in straight sets for the first time this week.
“I was lucky at times, and I was a little better on the important points,” Federer added.
The winner of Federer and Coric will play either Novak Djokovic or Alexander Zverev in Sunday’s final.
Meanwhile, Sky Sports pundit Annabel Croft was concerned by the amount of problems which Nishikori caused Federer in their quarter-final tie.
“There we so many twists in that second set and definitely [Nishikori] started to dictate the play a lot more,” Croft told said.
“He was getting on top of Roger Federer and we did sense there was a little bit of tiring perhaps.
“It was as if Federer was just reaching at a couple more balls but it was incredible how he continues to play the right way.
“The minute Nishikori comes off the ball in the tiebreak then Federer is quick to stop on it.”