3 milestones awaiting Roger Federer at the 2020 Australian Open

20-time Grand Slam winner Roger Federer is the most successful player in the Open era in terms of career Grand Slam titles and Grand Slam match wins. Despite a 2 decade long professional career, Federer's win-loss record of over 82% is the fourth-best of all players to have played over 200 matches in their respective careers. Amidst a slew of records in the sport, Federer's 78 Grand Slam appearances, 8 Wimbledon titles, 5 successive titles at both Wimbledon and US Open, 10 titles at a tournament on 2 different surfaces and 6 ATP Finals titles are unequalled by any other player in the Open era.

At the Australian Open, Federer's 6 titles are only behind Novak Djokovic's tally of 7 while his 97 match wins at the tournament are well clear of Djokovic's 68. Federer is one of only 5 players to win the Australian Open in the last 16 years. During this period, apart from Djokovic and himself, the 3 others (Marat Safin, Rafael Nadal, and Stanislas Wawrinka) have won only once. At the 2020 Australian Open, Federer would be making his 21st consecutive appearance at the tournament, which would be records both for overall as well as consecutive appearances at the first Grand Slam tournament of the year. Let us have a look at 3 other milestones awaiting Federer at the 2020 Australian Open:

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#1 First player to register 100 Australian Open match wins

Roger Federer at the Australian Open

Federer's 97 match wins at the Australian Open is the most by any player at the tournament. The Swiss maestro had his latest match win at the Australian Open after beating American Taylor Fritz in straight sets in the third round in 2019. 3 more match wins at the 2020 Australian Open would make Federer the first player to 100 match wins at the tournament. It would also make the 20-time Grand Slam champion the only player to register triple digit match win tallies at two different tournaments. Federer has 101 match wins at Wimbledon.

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#2 Reach a record 8th Australian Open final

Federer is the first player to reach 7 finals at the Australian Open, when he did so during his title winning campaign in 2017. Novak Djokovic joined Federer in the exclusive club the next year. At the 2020 Australian Open, Federer could reach his 8th final at the tournament which would be the most by any player in the Open era, depending on how Djokovic fares in the tournament.

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#3 Become the oldest Grand Slam champion in the Open Era

By reaching the title match at the 2020 Australian Open, Federer would give himself the chance of tying Novak Djokovic's tournament record of 7 titles. A title triumph in Melbourne would see him lift a record-extending 21st Grand Slam title, go level with Djokovic for most titles at the tournament, and would also make him the oldest player in the Open era to lift a major title. Federer had narrowly failed to claim this record for himself when he came within two consecutive championship points on serve in the fifth set of the 2019 Wimbledon final against Djokovic, only to go down to the Serb in the first-ever Wimbledon fifth set to feature a tiebreak.

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