Playing in his home town of Basel has proven extremely successful for Roger Federer. He eased into his 9^th Swiss Indoors title by defeating Marius Copil in straight sets. This was also Federer’s 99^th tournament win. His Instagram feed stated that he was partying like it was 1999. Well, he’s not far off. He first won an ATP title in February of 2001. That’s 17 years ago. He reached his first ATP final at Marseille in February of 2000. That’s 18 years ago. It’s hard to digest this kind of a time gap between tournaments when your speaking about a tennis player.

Most top players’ careers don’t last 17 years. Most top players are happy having 10 solid years on the tour. Looking at it that way, Federer has been playing on borrowed time for the last seven years. And although I can’t imagine him contending for Grand Slams at 37, there’s no reason to believe he can’t pocket another five to seven titles at the 250, 500, and 1000 level events in the next three years.

That being said, the numbers that Federer has built up are just plain ridiculous. Check out his career statistics page on Wikipedia. He has been in 151 ATP tour tournament finals in the last 18 years, of which, he’s won 99. That’s insane. It is also interesting to look at is who he was playing for these tournaments in the first third of his career. You see names like Tim Henman, Marc Rosset, Carlos Moya and Mark Philippoussis. These are players that seem to have been on the tour ages ago, like in the 90s. Federer has transcended several generations of tennis players, and is still winning. Long after other contemporaries like Andy Roddick and Marat Safin have retired, this guy is still on the court hitting winners and overwhelming his opponents. Again, that’s ridiculous. It’s insane. It’s amazing.

A couple of years ago there was a story about a Federer fan that came out of an 11-year coma in 2015. The man went into a coma in December 2014, which means that Federer had already five Grand Slam titles to his name, two-year end finals, and three Masters level wins. In sum, by December 2004 Federer had already built a Hall of Fame career. When the man woke, one of the things he asked his parents was how Federer had done. He was astonished to find out that he had won 12 more Grand Slam titles and was still ranked number two in the world. Since that man woke from a coma, Federer has added three more Grand Slams to his total!

So, cheers to you Roger Federer. You truly are timeless, and the GOAT. Let’s not hang up that racket any time soon.