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If he can beat Marin Cilic on Sunday — no small feat — Federer will claim his 19thGrand Slam title, which would extend his own record on the men’s side and give him two this season alone, after his amazing win over Rafael Nadal in the dream final in Melbourne in January. It would also mean his time alongside Jack Nicklaus in the “18 majors” club would be surprisingly brief, which doesn’t mean much other than as fodder for trivia.

But there is one way in which the comparison to golf does have some use. Even when it looked like an obvious certainty that Tiger Woods would surpass Nicklaus in major wins, there was an argument in Jack’s favour that he did all his winning in an era of giants. He played against Palmer and Player, then Watson and Ballesteros, while Woods, as good as he was, never had a true rival. Federer’s greatness has been much more of the Nicklaus version. He has won more big tournaments than anyone, but he has finished near the top more than anyone, even as Novak Djokovic and Nadal conducted their own assaults on the record books. Federer’s 18 Grand Slam titles are all the more absurd when you consider that they came as those other two guys were winning a combined 27 of their own. Federer’s march to the finals in London gives him a record 29thappearance in a Grand Slam final and a record 11thappearance in the Wimbledon final. In both cases, he was merely extending his own record.

Once you start examining Federer’s records, it can get a little dizzying. He’s been in more Slam semifinals (42) and quarterfinals (50) than anyone, and he once appeared in an insane 23 straight Grand Slam semis. Think about how hard that is: almost six full seasons where he made the final four in each of the four biggest tournaments on the calendar. Federer’s win over Berdych also extended his record of career Slam singles wins to 320. Djokovic is next at 237. If Federer wins on Sunday, that would give him exactly 84 more Slam wins than Djokovic, which means that Federer could retire on Monday and Djokovic could win the next 12 majors — seven wins each — and he would just tie his career mark. I am 650 words in here, and I am fresh out of superlatives.