Roger Federer collected his third career win versus his shadow Grigor Dimitrov.  I am not going to read too much into Dimitov’s one-sided loss, but at 33 Roger Federer is someone Dimitrov should press a bit more than he has to date.  Dimitrov only won 4 games in this match and is now 0-3 (0-6 in sets) versus The Fed.

History Watch

• Roger Federer is one win away from his 1000th main tour victory.  He will join Jimmy Connors and Ivan Lendl as the only men to win 1000 or more matches in the Open Era.  He may join them by winning his 83rd career title.
• Roger Feerer holds 82 career titles.  This places him 3rd behind Jimmy Connors’ 109 career titles and Ivan Lendl’s 94 career titles.  I think Connors’ mark is out of Federer’s reach.  Lendl’s mark seems like a stretch, but Roger won 5 titles last year.  A title to start 2015 may mean Federer has enough time to give serious chase to Lendl.
• Milos Raonic, who has won 1 of his 2 most recent matches versus Federer, will have something to say about all of this.

Rankings Watch

• Rafael Nadal did not defend the 250 points he won in Qatar last year.  Roger Federer has at least defended and may add to the 150 points he won at Brisbane last year.  To my mind Rafa is the biggest challenge to Djokovic, but the odds of Rafa surpassing Roger’s ranking prior to Wimbledon seem low.  Rafa has many points to defend between now and the conclusion of Roland Garros.  This means Djokovic and Nadal will be slatted to face off in some semifinal rounds this year.