Roger Federer has set his sights on another memorable milestone as the 17-time grand slam champion eyes the 1,000th win of his career.
Federer’s 6-3, 6-2 victory over Japan’s Kei Nishikori at the ATP World Tour Finals yesterday took him to 70 match wins for the season – the sixth time he has hit that mark – and up to 993 career victories from his 1,219 matches.
The 33 year old can add three more wins at the Tour Finals if he goes all the way to take the title for the seventh time.
That would leave him needing only four more victories to join Jimmy Connors, who had 1,253, and Ivan Lendl, with 1,071, as the only men to have broken the 1,000 barrier.
With his glittering CV, Federer has already experienced almost every high the sport can offer.
But he believes making it to 1,000 wins would be an especially significant moment because it is a tribute to a player’s longevity at the top.
“I played only the big tournaments this year. Basically, again, I chased all the Masters 1000s, grand slams, so forth,” he said.
“It’s not easy to win matches there, as we know, because guys are always very good, margins are small.
“More importantly for me is getting closer to the thousand number. It would obviously be cool to get there. I think it’s a great number.” Federer took just 69 minutes to sec-ure his second Group B win to inch closer to the semi-finals in London.
At 33, he is the oldest player to qualify for the Tour Finals in his 13th consecutive appearance, but he has been in age-defying form over the last three days.
Federer has defeated Milos Raonic and US Open finalist Nishikori, two of the much-touted next generation of rising stars, without dropping a set and will guarantee top spot in the group, which would bring the added bonus of likely avoiding a semi-final showdown with Novak Djokovic, if he beats Andy Murray tomorrow.
Federer didn’t need to be at his very best against Nishikori, who made 30 unforced errors in a sloppy effort that left him with one win from two matches, damaging his hopes of making the last four.
“I’ve known Kei since he was 17 and always thought he was a great talent. He’s going to have a great future so I’m very pleased with the way I played,” Federer said. “I’m looking forward to playing Andy. We’ve played some of the greatest matches.”
Nishikori needed treatment on his right wrist during the match, but he hopes to be fit to face Raonic.
“It was just a little bit of soreness. I have one more day off, so I will try to recover well and hopefully I can win the next one,” he said.
“I didn’t play really bad. But I wasn’t really consistent with my serve and I had a few unforced errors. Roger took the important points.”
Nishikori, the first Asian singles players to make the Tour Finals, grew up idolising Federer and admitted he was overwhelmed by nerves when he first got the chance to play the Swiss. But, aided by new coach Michael Chang, he has overcome that hurdle and has beaten more top-10 opponents this season than in the previous seven years on tour. Nishikori went on to win two of his other three meetings with Federer and had an early chance to take control at the O2 with two break points in the third game.
Federer had other ideas however and battled back to hold serve before breaking twice to take the opening set. There was more bad news when Nishikori gifted a break to Federer with a succession of unforced errors in the third game of the second set and double-faulted to get broken again. It was all over soon after.
