Debate on the greats of the game boils down first and foremost to grand slam trophies in the cabinet, with Olympic medals, Davis Cup titles, rankings and head-to-head ledgers also weighing in.
A factor often overlooked, though, is a player’s longevity in the upper echelons of the game.
When Roger Federer steps onto Pat Rafter Arena today bidding for his 83rd career title, the match will carry extra significance if he manages to negotiate a way past Milos Raonic and that booming serve.
It would mark his 1000th career match win, joining American Jimmy Connors (1253) and Czech-American Ivan Lendl (1071) as only the third player to reach the milestone.
“I hope it’s tomorrow, clearly,” he said after wiping Grigor Dimitrov off the court in their semifinal on Saturday.
“It’s a really big number, no doubt about it. Love to get it tomorrow, especially in the finals in an ATP event where most of my wins have come.
“If not tomorrow, I hope it happens at the Australian Open. Been a lot of the matches, a lot of toughening out plays.
“I don’t know if it’s a goal, but it would definitely be an incredible milestone to reach.”
Federer added a Davis Cup trophy and five more titles to his already overflowing CV in 2014; complementing the seven Wimbledon crowns, five US Opens, four Australian Opens and one French Open he already owns.
Where he struggled to find his game against an inspired John Millman in his first outing of the new season, battling back from a set and a break down, the world No.2 responded emphatically.
Where his great rivals Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal were stumbling to unexpected defeats in their first tournament of the season, Federer regrouped to fire the first warning shots of the year ahead, crushing James Duckworth for the loss of one game in 39 minutes and following it up with an equally humbling 53-minute route of world No.11 Dimitrov for the loss of four games.
Montenegro-born Canadian Raonic’s path to the final has been of marked contrast.
While he comfortably saw off Mikhail Kukushkin to open his season, he needed a pair of tiebreaks to get the job done in back-to-back three-set tussles, first with Australian Sam Groth and again on Saturday in downing world No.5 Kei Nishikori in 2h 31mins.
Nishikori did not drop serve in that match yet still came out on the losing end, but there will be some consolation today when he teams with Ukraine’s Alexandr Dolgopolov in the doubles decider.
They take on established British-Australian pair Jamie Murray and John Peers, who last year won a title together in Munich and reached three other finals.
While Raonic’s defence and movement have improved in the past year, there is no denying few players – barring Ivo Karlovic – rely as heavily on their serve as he does. It is a weapon, which helped carry him to a French Open quarterfinal and a Wimbledon semifinal in 2014, as well a title in Washington and a top-10 ranking.
The 24-year-old hardly needed to go out on a limb when pressed on what he would have to do to get past his Swiss opponent.
“I got to serve well. That’s always been a key,” he said.
“Last few matches I started poorly. I would get broken right in my first service game, which is not the way to really go about things, especially against a top player and especially against Roger.
“So I got to keep that pressure on him and then sort of step up when I can create my opportunities. I think that’s a good place to start.”
Their head-to-head ledger is heavily lop-sided in Federer’s favour, 7-1, with Raonic landing his first career victory over any of the big three – against Federer – in Paris late last year.
Then there are those tiebreaks, which inevitably result in a Raonic match. A third of the 21 sets they’ve played have gone to a ’breaker – four in Federer’s favour, three to the Canadian.
The tiebreaks have been kind to the world No.8 this week and they may well present his best chance at claiming the Brisbane title.
If the top seed breaks the Raonic serve expect the set to be over. There are few stops on tour Federer plays where he hasn’t been last man standing. There’s extra motivation to add Brisbane to that long list.