Tennis: 5 Players who are part of the elusive '100 Titles Club'
Swiss great Roger Federer recently won his 100th ATP title in Dubai making him only the second man in the Open Era to enter the elusive '3 digit club'. The Swiss maestro beat his Australian Open conqueror, Stefanos Tsitsipas, 17 years his junior in the final. The enormous scale of Federer's achievement was aptly summed up by the Greek youngster who remarked that he was first looking at getting to a 100 match wins which itself is an achievement.
There have been 10 players among Men who have won a 100 titles or more but only 2 of them have done so in the Open Era. Likewise in the Women's draw, there have been 5 players who won 100 or more titles with 3 of them having achieved it in the Open Era.
We focus our discussion on the 5 players who entered the 'Century Plus Club' in the Open Era.
NOTE: It is noteworthy to mention that Australian great Rod Laver won a total of 200 Singles titles (a majority of them in the Amateur Era) in his career and it is highly unlikely to ever be surpassed. Also worthy of mention is fellow Australian Margaret Court's record of 192 Singles titles.
#5 Roger Federer
The latest entrant to the 100 trophy club was 20-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer. Since winning his very first ATP title in Milan in the year 2001, the great man has won at least one title every year since barring 2016.
Reflecting on a memorable journey, Federer said that it wasn't all about Grand Slams and he wouldn't have got to a century if he didn't give adequate importance to ATP tournaments. Title number 50 came at the Cincinnati Masters of 2007 when he beat James Blake in the final. “It’s not a goal I set for myself in my career, but it’s definitely a nice number to get to,” Federer said at the time. He was made to wait for a while after winning title #99 in his hometown of Basel in October last year where he won for a record 9th time.
Having committed himself to play the clay court season, Federer has surely set his eyes on taking the number one slot among men. One wouldn't certainly bet against him achieving that milestone anytime soon as his nearest rival among active players is Rafael Nadal - who is a good 20 titles behind with 80 title wins.