The last time Roger Federer played Stockholm, almost ten years to the day, he was looking forward.  Never one to be overly modest, Federer knew he was talented, but could he win a Slam?  Could he win Wimbledon?

A few years later, he would embark on a journey to become the most prolific Slam winner, at least, among men.  He would surpass Sampras’s 14 Slams.  He would win a small Slam three different years (winning 3 of 4 Slams in the same year), a feat no man had accomplished since Mats Wilander (and then, only once).

Despite those who claim Roger is the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time), Roger could still break a few more records.

Roger must have sensed that there was a convergence of three goals he could accomplish in the same tournament.  If Roger won a match at Stockholm, he’d have his career best at Stockholm, never having passed the second round (partly because he hadn’t played since 2000).  OK, that’s not much of a record.  However, if he won two matches, he would have his 9th 50-win season.  It would have been 10 had he won one more match in 2001.  Roger might have played just one more tournament if he knew it might make a difference.

If he won Stockholm, he’d win his 64th title.  Although Federer has exceeded Sampras in a few ways (more Slam titles, won the Career Slam), Sampras still has a few records Roger hasn’t broken yet, but is very close on.  These include weeks at number 1 (Roger is one week short of tying the record, and two weeks short of breaking it).  This includes number of total tournaments won (prior to Stockholm, Roger had 63 titles while Sampras had 64).  Then, there’s total number of Wimbledons (Roger has 6, Pete has 7).

Roger hit three milestones by winning today’s match over Florian Mayer: his 900th career win, his 9th consecutive year with 50 wins, and his 64th tournament win, tying Pete Sampras.  Stockholm must have seem perfect for him.  The tournament didn’t attract a particularly strong field.  The next few seeds were Soderling, Berdych, and Ljubicic.  Soderling and Berdych didn’t get that deep and Ljubicic hasn’t beaten Roger in a while.

Roger still has a few more records that he could try to achieve.  The most realistic goal is winning his 65th title.  The least realistic goal is winning a Grand Slam.  Most people feel, short of Nadal sitting out due to injury, Roger Federer can’t really elevate his game much more than he has now, and thus, he’ll always be vulnerable to players like Nadal, Djokovic, Murray, and del Potro.  If he can string a few good wins together and get back to number 1, then he’ll have a good shot to break Sampras’s weeks at number 1.  The bad news is getting back to number 1.  If Nadal were injured, his chances would be quite good.

This is only Roger’s third title of the year, but he rarely complains if he can win a Slam which has done every year since 2003.  His goal, undoubtedly, is to stay healthy enough to play through the French-Wimbledon double and hope to win Wimbledon once again.

Next week, three ATP 250 events at St. Petersburg, Lyon, and Vienna.  Then, two ATP 250 events after that in Basel and Valencia.  Then the Paris Indoors, the last Masters 1000 of the year, then a week off, then the ATP World Tour Finals, and finally, the Davis Cup final, at which point, men’s tennis rests for a month prior to the start of the year (Federer and Nadal will play two exhibitions, once in Switzerland and one in Spain in late December).