Whereas Rafael Nadal won his first singles title in his 24th ATP tournament, Federer had to wait more than twice as long before securing the first of his 100 trophies. In his 49th tournament - Milan in January 2001 - he beat the Frenchman Julien Boutter in three sets 6-4, 6-7, 6-4 in the final.

When the moment came there was no display of emotion like that the Swiss would display in later Wimbledon finals. Forcing an error from a sliced backhand approach shot, Federer briefly lifted both arms to the sky before turning to shake the hand of his opponent. Looking back, one gets the sense he knew this was only the beginning.

The tournament in Milan has also proved to be something of an anomaly for Federer because it is one of only 14 tournaments he has played on carpet in his career. Carpet is technically his worst surface - with a tournament-winning ratio of 14.3 per cent (2 titles).

Federer has been at his most dominant on grass throughout his career - winning a scary 18 of 45 tournaments (40 per cent) in which he has participated. His hard court tournament win ratio stands at 32 per cent while on clay it is much lower at 14.7 per cent.

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