Now that Roger Federer has won his 15th major singles title, breaking the all-time men’s record of 14 set by Pete Sampras, what is his next goal?
All champions are goal-setters and when one goal is achieved, there is the immediate focus on what the next goal is. The other major goal for Federer was to win the French Open to win the career Grand Slam, which he also achieved in 2009.
But browsing through the 792-page volume THE BUD COLLINS HISTORY OF TENNIS ($25.95, New Chapter Press, www.NewChapterMedia.com), there are many more records for Federer to take aim at. For example, would it realistic for Roger to take aim at Margaret Court and her 24 career major singles titles as a goal? Could Roger, at age 28, possibly win nine more major singles titles? With seven more major singles victories, Federer would equal Steffi Graf’s tally of 22 major singles titles (which is No. 2 all-time to Court’s 24 titles). With four more major singles titles, he would tie Helen Wills and her 19 major singles titles; three more majors and he will stand with the efforts of both Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, who both won 18 major singles titles.
Roger currently has won six Wimbledon titles. One more title at the All England Club and he will equal Pete Sampras’ modern record of seven. (Sampras is also tied with Willie Renshaw, who won seven titles from 1881-1886, 1889 but Renshaw only played one match to win five of his titles as the tournament holder).
At the U.S. Open, Federer has won five singles titles, the most in the Open Era (since 1968) with Jimmy Connors and Pete Sampras. He was painfully short of winning a sixth straight title, falling in a five-set final to Juan Martin del Potro. One more title at Flushing Meadows will place him in a league of his own as Flushing’s greatest champion. Bill Tilden, Bill Larned and Richard Sears, however, all won U.S. seven titles, the record, but in the pre-1968 era and Larned and Sears played in the era when the defending champion received a bye into the final.
As for weeks ranked as No. 1 in the world by the ATP computer, Sampras holds the record with 286 weeks at No. 1. Federer stands with 262 as of December 14, so if Federer reaches another Australian Open final and has a decent U.S. spring hard court run, he should hang on and break another Sampras record half way through the 2010 season.
Federer has won 61 career ATP singles titles. Jimmy Connors’ record of 109 is well out of reach, as is Ivan Lendl’s 94 titles that place him in second place, but moving ahead of Sampras, who won 64 titles and stands in fourth place, would seem an attainable goal. Moving ahead of John McEnroe and his 77 career singles titles is also achievable.
One could surmise that leading Switzerland to the Davis Cup title would also be on Federer’s short list of goals. He and former top 10 standout Stan Wawrinka certainly have the right stuff to win the Davis Cup one day, but a difficult match against two-time defending Davis Cup champion Spain in Spain in the first round of the 2010 competition could snuff out Federer’s opportunity for another year.