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DUBAI - No sooner does Roger Federer break one record than he seems to set his sights on another.
A few days after making it 161 consecutive weeks as world number one, breaking the record held by Jimmy Connors, the Swiss maestro defeated Russian Mikhail Youzhny in Saturday's
Dubai Open final to equal Bjorn Borg's total of 41 wins in a row.
Several more records are ready to fall when Federer moves on to the Masters Series event at Indian Wells which starts on Monday.
If he wins his opening match in California, he will equal John McEnroe's record of 42 successive victories.
Two matches later he could equal the Ivan Lendl run of 44, moving in sight of the all-time winning streak of 46 set by Argentina's Guillermo Vilas in 1977.
"It's nice to be playing against the history books," Federer told reporters.
"It's one of the nicest things to be able to do because I never thought I would ever do such a thing."
His last defeat was against Britain's Andy Murray in Cincinnati in August.
"But I think we have to be a little bit patient and see how my records and career finishes up," said the modest Swiss.
"At the end of my career we can sit down and say okay, did I break the records or didn't I? Am I the best or am I not?
"All this talk right now it's all speculation. I'm still very far off in terms of grand slam victories and tournaments won."
It is typical of Federer to take everything in his stride and he shrugged off any prospect of nerves heading to Indian Wells.
"Not one bit," he said.
"I'm playing to win the tournament. In tennis we're very short-sighted.
"We go tournament by tournament, match by match, point by point even, so the records won't play a role."
Federer's next major target is the French Open. If he wins in Paris in June, that will give him four consecutive grand slam titles.
"This year again I'll be playing all the tournaments leading up to the French Open and hopefully I'm going to play well again," he said.
"It's definitely one of the huge goals, especially going again like last year for the fourth grand slam in a row and then heading into Wimbledon trying to win my fifth in a row there. It's an exciting time."
- REUTERS