Ten years ago, Federer won his 1000th match in Brisbane
In January 2015, Roger Federer, then world no. 2, won the Brisbane tournament and, in the process, reached the symbolic milestone of 1,000 victories on the professional circuit.
For the start of the 2015 season, the Swiss player had the ATP 250 Brisbane on his calendar.
Federer was the clear favorite at this tournament, where the No.2 and No.3 seeds at the time were Kei Nishikori and Milos Raonic, and made his way to the final without too much difficulty, beating John Millman (4-6, 6-4, 6-3), James Duckworth (6-0, 6-1) and Grigor Dimitrov (6-2, 6-2).
In the final, he was aiming for the 1000th victory of his career, a feat which at the time had only been achieved by Jimmy Connors (1274 wins) and Ivan Lendl (1071 wins) in the history of the Open era.
Faced with the powerful server Raonic, Federer gave himself a scare by conceding the second set in a tie-break, before claiming the 83rd title of his legendary career in just over two hours of play (6-4, 6-7, 6-4).
On the occasion of this 1000th career victory, the tournament organizers had anticipated everything. The photo of the Swiss with his trophy and the number 1000 on the ground in front of him will always be remembered.
Since then, Rafael Nadal (1,080 wins) and Novak Djokovic (1,126 wins) have joined the elite club of 1,000 career victories.
Federer even came close to Jimmy Connors' record of 1274 victories, ending his career with a total of 1251 matches won.
There are plenty of other great players. Stop that nonsense please!