TENNIS in DEPTH.

Roger Federer won the If Stockholm Open on Sunday to equal Pete Sampras’ tally of 64 ATP Tour titles. Federer beat Florian Mayer 6-4 6-3 to achieve the feat. Despite 77 per cent of Mayer’s first serves finding the service box, the German was picked off when Federer raised his game, the Swiss clinching victory after just 64 minutes. Having drawn level with Sampras, Federer now has only Jimmy Connors (109), Ivan Lendl (94) and John McEnroe (77) ahead of him on the all-time list of Open era title winners.

Viktor Troicki claimed his first ATP Tour title with a comeback win over fourth seed Marcos Baghdatis at the Kremlin Cup in Moscow. Troicki had lost his previous two finals and the 43rd-ranked Serb had to call on all his fighting qualities to claim his breakthrough success 3-6 6-4 6-3. Troicki had lost his only previous meeting with Baghdatis and looked set to lose again when he was broken in the sixth game of an opening set he went on to drop. But the 24-year-old battled back and levelled the contest with a single break in the second before opening up a 4-1 lead in the decider. Baghdatis saved the first match point before Troicki claimed the title with a forehand winner.

“Marcos was playing very good in the first set,” said Troicki. “But then I started playing better and better and in the end I won my first title. It feels unbelievable.”

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