New Delhi: He decimates his opponents, is near perfect on court and collects trophies records. He is well on his way to overtake all the legends that tennis has witnessed.
Playing at the Dubai Open, Roger Federer not only celebrated his three-set win over Kristian Pless but also his 161st consecutive week as world No 1.
Federed demolished Pless 7-6, 3-6, 6-3 but the score line doesn't quite tell of the dominance he has had on the game.
And the week is also a special week for the 25-year-old as he eclipsed Jimmy Connors' record of staying at the No 1 spot for 160 weeks.
"161 weeks in a row at No 1 is a world record and I'm the one who broke it. It took someone 30 years to do that so I'm very happy about it and I hope it's going to last another 30 years for me," says Federer.
Records and benchmarks have never been difficult for Fedex. Over the past couple of seasons, he's broken many and made new ones, as he upped the pace to leave the rest of the pack behind.
And now, Pete Sampras' record of 286 weeks as No1 will surely be on the agenda.
So will be the elusive French Open.
But one record that he feels is out of reach is Jimmy Connors' record of 109 career titles.
"We met when I was 13 on the centre court at Basel. I still have a picture of that. I was awarded best junior in my region at that age and they thought it would be nice to get it on centre court when they played an exhibition match, him and Mansour Bahrami, so I still have a picture with Jimmy Connors. And who thought that I would ever break his record? So it's quite a story," Federer says.
Rafael Nadal, the world No 2, is more than 3000 points behind Federer and the gap is bound to increase.
The man whom no one wants to face on court is all set to etch his name on all record books.
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