DUBAI: Add a century of career titles to Roger Federer's staggering list of achievements in tennis.
The 20-time Grand Slam champion became the second male tennis player to win 100 tour-level tournament titles in the professional era when he beat Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 6-4 in the final of the Dubai Championships on Saturday.
Jimmy Connors is the other male player to reach the milestone, and the American ended his career on 109 titles.
By beating a player nearly half his age in just 69 minutes, the 37-year-old Federer continued his record of winning at least one title every season since his first in 2001 in Milan — when he was 19.
Eight of his victories have come in Dubai.
"It's an absolute dream come true right now," Federer said on the court.
As well as his record haul of Grand Slam titles, which includes a record eight wins at Wimbledon, Federer has won a record six ATP Finals titles and topped the rankings for a record 310 weeks — including 237 straight.
In a battle of the generations, Federer partially avenged his loss to the 20-year-old Tsitsipas, a rising star from Greece, in the last 16 of the Australian Open in January.
Federer broke serve in the first game and took the first set on his fourth set point.
The second set was more even, but Tsitsipas made the first big mistake in dumping an easy shot into the net to loose serve for 5-4. Federer held serve to love to join Connors in the century club.
Roger Federer wins in Dubai to claim 100th career title
Roger Federer wins in Dubai to claim 100th career title
Pegula knocks Keys out of Australian Open
MELBOURNE: Jessica Pegula knocked podcast pal and defending champion Madison Keys out of the Australian Open on Monday to secure a quarterfinal against Amanda Anisimova, another all-American match.
Their fourth-round wins on Day 9 mean four Americans have reached the women’s singles last eight in Australia for the first time since 2001, when Serena and Venus Williams, Jennifer
Capriati, Monica Seles and Lindsay Davenport made it through.
It is also the first time the top six seeds in the women’s and men’s singles have all qualified for the last eight of a Grand Slam event in the Open Era.
“Sucks that one American has to go out in the quarterfinals,” Anisimova said.
No. 6-seeded Pegula had a slightly different take: “At least one of us will get through and I think that’s great for American tennis. Yeah, it’s been pretty crazy how well the women have been doing and how many top-ranked girls there are. I’m just happy to be a part of that conversation.”
Pegula and No. 4 Anisimova advanced a day after No. 3 Coco Gauff and 18-year-old Iva Jovic earned their places on the other side of the draw.
Pegula’s 6-3, 6-4 win at Rod Laver Arena ended Keys’ first Grand Slam title defense in a tough section of the draw.
Anisimova, runner-up at the last two majors at Wimbledon and the US Open, advanced 7-6 (4), 6-4 over Wang Xinyu as the temperature started rising at Melbourne Park and organizers triggered the heat stress policy which allowed for extra cooling breaks.
