Roger Federer is ready to take a crack at history. On Saturday at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, Federer will make his first attempt in a final to lift his 100th tour-level trophy, trying to join Jimmy Connors (109 titles) as the only two men to accomplish the feat. This is Federer’s fourth tournament and his first championship match since earning his 99th crown last October in Basel.

But standing in the 37-year-old Swiss’ way is reigning Next Gen ATP Finals champion Stefanos Tsitsipas. The 20-year-old Greek, who is set to make his Top 10 debut in the ATP Rankings on Monday, will take confidence from his win against Federer in the fourth round of the Australian Open in the pair’s only previous FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting.

“Maybe [there is] a little bit [of a revenge element to the final]… Obviously, I was horribly disappointed and upset that I missed as many break points as I did [at the Australian Open, with] all the opportunities I had,” said Federer, who didn’t convert any of his 12 break chances against Tsitsipas in Melbourne. “That match hurt in some ways. But it’s part of the game. He did very well to get out of those tricky situations.”

Tsitsipas brings an eight-match winning streak into the final after triumphing at the Open 13 Provence in Marseille last week. The Greek is prepared for Federer at full flight, knowing there is history at stake.

“I’m sure he will be pumped up. It’s not easy. It’s not easy for both of us. He obviously wants to beat me. For him, that loss was a big thing,” Tsitsipas said. “I’m pretty sure he will come… [to] the court fired up, wanting to take revenge from me. I’m definitely expecting that.”

Both players have overcome adversity to make the final at this ATP 500 tennis tournament, with Federer losing a set in his first two matches and Tsitsipas being forced to a deciding set in three of his four clashes. 

When they played in Melbourne, the 20-year-old Tsitsipas saved four set points to avoid a two-set deficit against Federer. The Greek showed similar fight on Friday in his final-set tie-break win over Gael Monfils in the Dubai semi-finals. Monfils led Tsitsipas 6-4, 3-1, and also had four break chances to take a 5-3 lead in the final set, before the Greek emerged victorious.

Federer vs. Tsitsipas Stats: 2019 Australian Open (Tsitsipas d. Federer 6-7(11), 7-6(3), 7-5, 7-6(5)

“He gets it done that way. It’s not the classic one-dimensional way. He has many ways to do it. That makes him tough to play, tough to beat,” Federer said. “He showed me at the Australian Open how hard he is [to play]. I hope I’m going to play well… We’re still far from [reaching 100 titles], it seems. I’m just going to try to focus and play good tennis.”

While this will only be the pair’s second tour-level match against one another, Federer admires Tsitsipas’ game. The 99-time tour-level champion likes the Greek’s knack for winning points in a variety of ways.  

“What I like about [Stefanos] is how he’s able to take the ball early, time and time again. [With his] serve, he takes it early and comes to the net. He does that all the time. Then on the backhand side, he has more air, which gives him a bit more margin,” Federer said. “For a big guy, he moves well… Nowadays, all the big guys move well. I don’t know how they do it… It’s nice to see all the qualities that he has. He has different ways to win points, which makes it hard to play against.”

While this is Federer’s first chance to join the ‘100 Club’, Tsitsipas is not shying away from the moment. “The biggest joy is to beat the Top 10 guys,” Tsitsipas said. 

Beating Federer to prevent history and win his first ATP 500 title would be his biggest victory yet.

Roger Federer moved to within one victory of capturing his eighth Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships title, which could represent the 100th tour-level crown of his career, on Friday night. The Swiss superstar cruised past Borna Coric at the Aviation Club in a comprehensive 6-2, 6-2 victory over 67 minutes for a shot at history.

If the Swiss superstar is to join Jimmy Connors (109 titles) as the second man in the Open Era to reach a century of singles trophies, he will have to snap the eight-match winning streak of Stefanos Tsitsipas, the reigning Next Gen ATP Finals champions. Last month, Tsitsipas beat Federer 6-7(11), 7-6(3), 7-5, 7-6(5) in the Australian Open fourth round.

Federer won five of the first six games against Coric and converted his fourth set-point chance at 5-2 with an unreturned serve to complete the 32-minute opener. The second-seeded Swiss, who continued his policy of attacking the net and playing a number of drop shots, was gifted the opening game of the second set when Coric struck a forehand wide.

Coric’s error count increased and at 2-4, 30/40, a wild forehand spelled the end for the sixth-seeded Croatian. Federer wrapped up his seventh victory in eight matches this year with an ace for a place in his 152nd tour-level final (99-52 record).

Coric, now 6-3 on the season, had recorded three consecutive third-set tie-break victories in Dubai over lucky loser Jiri Vesely, Tomas Berdych and Nikoloz Basilashvili.

You may often wonder what players have in their bags as they walk out onto court. In the early hours of Friday morning, moments after beating John Millman 7-6(2), 6-7(4), 7-6(4), John Isner shed some light on the subject after he booked his place in the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC semi-finals.

Shortly after 2:30 a.m. local time, the American explained, “I feel very tired, 2:30 in the morning. I think I went through 10 shirts, 14 hats, two shoes, three pairs of shorts and three pairs of socks.”

Isner grit it teeth and fired down 38 aces in the final match of the day, saving two set points at 3-5, 15/40 in the first set of his victory over eighth seed Millman over three hours and six minutes on Cancha Central.

The third-seeded Isner will now play Nick Kyrgios on Friday. The pair is even at 2-2 in his FedEx ATP Head2Head. “We’ve played a handful of times, I’ve seen his matches this week,” said Isner. “I’ve won a couple, he’s won a couple. He’s an incredible talent, everyone knows that. So it will be a fun match.”

In a match that started with blood, ended with cramps and was filled with gripping drama for more than two-and-a-half hours, Nick Kyrgios outlasted Stan Wawrinka 7-5, 6-7(3), 6-4 on Thursday to reach the semi-finals at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC. Kyrgios will play fellow Aussie John Millman or third seed John Isner of the United States in the next round.

More to come…