Roger Federer became the first man in history to win 20 Grand Slam titles as he downed Marin Cilic to win his third major over the age of 35.
The 36-year-old beat the sixth seed 6-2 6-7 (5-7) 6-3 3-6 6-1 in a match lasting little over three hours, to match Novak Djokovic and Roy Emerson’s record hauls of six Australian Open crowns.
He has now won as many titles as any other man in history at Melbourne Park, Wimbledon (8) and the US OPEN (5), while he became just the fourth player of either sex to lift 20 or more major titles.
Federer is, of course, the first of the group – of which the other members are Margaret Court (24), Serena Williams (23) and Steffi Graf (22) – to have achieved the feat in best-of-five set Grand Slams, while he has extended his lead over the second-most dominant male in history, Rafael Nadal, to four.
