Rotterdam Open | My first objective was to win 100 titles, claims Roger Federer
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After winning his 97th career title by defeating Grigor Dimitrov in Rotterdam Open final, Roger Federer said that his first objective is to win 100 career titles in the Open era. The Swiss maestro revealed his happiness for the āfantastic weekā as he became the oldest player to be ranked number one.
Records and Roger Federer canāt be separated from each other. Federer who recently broke Andre Agassiās record to become the oldest world number one won his careerās 97th title at the Rotterdam Open on Sunday. After his win, the Swiss said that his main objective now is to reach 100 career titles before equalling the record of winning 109 singles titles in the open era set by Jimmy Connors.
The 20 time Grand Slam winner started the week by defeating Robin Haase in the quarterfinals that helped him reclaim the top spot in the rankings almost after six years. In his process of reclaiming top spot in the rankings, he broke Andre Agassiās record of being the oldest player in the world to be at the summit of the rankings. The Swiss ended the week by defeating Grigor Dimitrov 6-2, 6-2 in the finals of the Rotterdam Open enabling him to claim his 97th career title.
"What a fantastic week. The goal at the start of the week was to make it to the semi-finals. This is absolutely amazing, I'm really pleased. It's unbelievable to be number one again after all these (six) years -- this is one of the best weeks of my life," said the 36-year-old, reported AFP.
Federer has enjoyed a perfect start to the year as he has a 12-0 record for the year and has also won the Australian Open and Rotterdam Open in the same course of time.
"I saved the best for last. I had a great first match and a great last match. In between it was a battle, it was nerve-wracking getting back to number one. But I was able to manage my nerves and the expectations,ā Federer revealed.
ā97 is not 100 yet, you've got to stay healthy if you want to get close to finals. Things can evaporate quickly."Ā
As the match lasted for just 55 minutes and was a one-sided affair, the 20 times grand slam champion said,
"I was expecting a tough final, but I could see that Grigor was not at his best midway through. He's a great player and a great athlete and has been playing well recently.ā
"I was able to improve my tennis today when I needed to, I was able to take advantage. I'm very, very happy."
Dimitrov rubbished the claims of him being physically unfit for the tournament and concluded saying,Ā "Overall, it was a good week, I just came up short today. Anything can happen out there, all credit to Roger. He's back to number one, played well all week and kept raising the bar."
