Roger Federer reaches the final with his 999th win

The world number two tennis player easily won 6-2, 6-2 against rising star Grigor Dimitrov, in the semi-finals of the Brisbane International on Saturday afternoon, January 10.

A quick 53-minute victory meant Roger Federer needed just one more win to become only the third player in the Open era (since 1968) to reach the milestone of at least 1,000 career wins, joining two legends Jimmy Connors (1,253 wins) and Ivan Lendl (1,071).

At Pat Rafter Arena, top seed Federer broke in the first game, and then broke his opponent three more times on serve in a comfortable victory over Bulgarian fourth seed Grigor Dimitrov. The 23-year-old, once nicknamed “Little Federer,” has lost all three of their previous meetings.

Roger Federer is approaching the 1,000-match win mark. Photo: Reuters.

In the final, the 33-year-old Swiss will play serving specialist Milos Raonic. The 24-year-old Canadian, seeded third in the tournament, advanced to the semi-finals with a hard-fought 6-7(4-7), 7-6(7-4), 7-6(7-4) victory over young Japanese star Kei Nishikori, after two and a half hours of action.

“I can absolutely play aggressive tennis and win fast like the last two matches. Winning today against a really talented player like Dimitrov was a great result. I'm also happy that I didn't have to waste a lot of energy in a match like this. Toan was completely fresh before the final, and that can be considered a little advantage over Milos Raonic,” Federer said after his semi-final victory.

In his first appearance at the Brisbane tournament last year, Federer lost to home player Lleyton Hewitt in the final.

Federer is aiming for his 83rd career title, including 17 Grand Slams. Raonic, meanwhile, is on the hunt for his seventh. Federer currently leads his junior rival 7-1 in the head-to-head record. Raonic's only win so far over the Swiss came in the quarterfinals of the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris last November. Their most recent meeting was at the ATP World Tour Finals, a tournament for the eight strongest players in 2014, with Federer winning in two sets in the opening round.

Brisbane is the warm-up tournament for the Australian Open, which takes place from January 19 to February 1 in Melbourne, on hard courts.

The Brisbane International final starts at 4pm on Sunday, January 11 (Hanoi time).

According to VNE