Federer is only the second man to win a ton of ATP titles
Roger Federer has won his 100th ATP Tour title at the Dubai Tennis Championships - 6,600 days after winning his first in Milan.
The 37-year-old Swiss - a 20-time Grand Slam champion - beat Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4 6-4.
Federer's first ATP title came at the Milan Open on 4 February, 2001, when he beat Frenchman Julien Boutter.
He is just the second man, after American Jimmy Connors in 1983, to reach the landmark.
"I'm delighted. It's great to win my eighth here in Dubai and in combination with my 100th singles title," said Federer, who will return to world number four on Monday while Tsitsipas will break into the top 10 for the first time.
"To win in Marseille and then come here was difficult for Stefanos.
"I don't know if Stefanos was born when I won my first title (he was, in August 1998). It's a privilege [to play against possible future champions] because I'll be watching them on the TV. It was a treat to play Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi. I'm sure Stefanos will have a wonderful career.
"Tennis is in good hands regardless if I'm there or not."
Federer broke Tsitsipas, 20, in the first game of the match before saving two break points at 5-4 to see out the first set.
The Greek held his nerve in the second set until 4-4, before Federer broke his serve once again to wrap up the final in 69 minutes.
World number 11 Tsitsipas was Federer's 50th different final opponent and the 25th different nationality.
It was only the second time the pair had met, with Tsitsipas beating Federer in four sets in the Australian Open last 16 in January.
Federer will have to win 10 more titles to beat Connors' men's record of 109, while Martina Navratilova holds the all-time record having won 167 women's singles crowns during her career.
The BBC report of Federer's first ATP title, in which he was described as "one of the up-and-coming stars on the men's tennis scene"Analysis
BBC tennis correspondent Russell Fuller
Jimmy Connors' record remains a remarkable one.
He won his 109th and final tournament in Tel Aviv in the month after turning 37, and that was more than six years before finally calling it a day.
Federer has played a very similar number of matches to Connors to the age he is now, but did not feel able to play quite as many tournaments in his twenties given the physical demands of the modern game.
Connors won 15 titles - including the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open - in his stand out season of 1974. Nothing that Federer achieves should remotely diminish Connors' feat, although the Swiss is playing in what the Grand Slam roll of honour shows to be men's tennis' finest era.
Is there any way Federer can catch Connors? Probably not, given his age, as he would need to maintain his recent strike rate for another couple of seasons.
If overtaking Connors' record was of paramount importance, then Federer could target the smaller, less competitive, events. But this would come at the expense of the Grand Slams, which remain Federer's overriding motivation.
