 Federer trails only Connors, Lendl and McEnroe in Tour titles |
Roger Federer beat Germany's Florian Mayer 6-4 6-3 to win the Stockholm Open and equal Pete Sampras's haul of 64 ATP titles for fourth on the all-time list. Federer recovered from losing his serve in the seventh game of the first set to clinch his third title of the year. The 29-year-old Swiss world number two said: "It's amazing that I'm there where Pete's ended his career." Jimmy Connors holds the Open-era record with 109 Tour wins ahead of Ivan Lendl (94) and John McEnroe (77). Federer, the 16-time Grand Slam winner, won his 50th match of the year on Friday, becoming only the fifth man since the Open era began in 1968, and the first since Sampras, to win 50 matches in at least nine straight years.  | 606: DEBATE |
Federer, who lost to Andy Murray in the final in Shanghai last week, moves above Sweden's Bjorn Borg in the list of most tournament wins. "You never know when it's your last one, that's why you want to savour every tournament," said Federer, who won for the first time in Sweden to take his tally to 18 countries in which he has lifted titles. "Early on, I think that feeling of wanting to prove yourself to the world and all the doubters is a very strong one, so you're very aggressive in your ways of winning and not enjoying them. "Today it's much more of the enjoyment part because I don't need to prove myself to anyone anymore, except to myself." The 47th-ranked Meyer, who is still without a win from three career finals, said: "Roger really deserved to win. I hope you get back to number one as soon as possible." On the all-time list of winners, Guillermo Vilas clinched 62 titles, Andre Agassi won 60, Ilie Nastase won 57 and Boris Becker claimed 49.
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