Roger Federer wins 64th career title
Roger Federer has won his 64th career title, defeating Florian Mayer in straight sets in the final of the If Stockholm Open.
The world No. 2’s 6-4, 6-3 win over the German sealed Federer’s third title of the season – he’s also won the Australian Open and the Cincinnati Masters in 2010 – and draws him level with Pete Sampras as equal fourth on the list of most titles won in the Open Era.
After playing the 900th match of his career against Taylor Dent in the second round in the Swedish capital (in which Federer thrashed the American 6-1, 6-2), Federer only dropped one set on his way to the title, with Stanislas Wawrinka taking the first set from his Swiss compatriot in the quarter-finals.
After staging a comeback to win that match, the reigning Australian Open champion defeating 17th ranked Ivan Ljubicic in the semis, before making his first visit to the Stockholm Open since 2000 count with victory over Mayer in a 64 minute final.
While Federer has now equalled Sampras’ mark, he needs in excess of 40 more titles to break Jimmy Connors’ record of 109 Open Era titles, and one suspects this might just be one record the 16-time Grand Slam champion will finish his glittering career without having made his own.
Federer though will surely be aiming to hold outright fourth place on the list by the end of the year, and with three tournaments left to play is coming home with the wind in his sails after disappointing (by his lofty standards at least) finishes at Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open, having also finished as runner-up to Andy Murray at the Shanghai Masters during October.
The 29-year-old next heads home to Basel where he’ll be seeking to reclaim the title that Novak Djokovic took from him in a three set final last year, then to Paris for the BNP Paribas Masters and finally to the World Tour Finals in London.
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