Roger Federer scored a hard-earned 6-4, 6-7 (2), 6-4 win against Milos Raonic in the Brisbane International final on Sunday, adding another title on his list of career highlights and earning the 1,000th victory of his illustrious career.

Federer had a strong start as he broke Raonic's serve in the third game of the match en route to winning the opening set. The Swiss tennis star looked poised to run away with a straight set win, but Raonic managed to force a tiebreaker and eventually extended the match into a decider.

The 17-time Grand Slam champion started the third set with an ace, but had to save three break-point chances to take the opening match of the final set. Raonic had several chances to take the momentum, but the more-experienced Federer managed to run away with the hard-earned victory in the final.

"It's almost nicer winning this way through a tight match with nerves and humid conditions against a great player in a final," Federer said after the match via ESPN. "It means so much more than just running away with it. I guess I was much happier having to go three sets in the end."

With the win, Federer also achieved a milestone on Sunday as he took the 1,000th victory of his career. Federer joined Jimmy Connors and Ivan Lendl as the only men's professional tour player with at least 1,000 victories.

"Clearly it's a special day for me, winning a title plus getting to the magic number of 1,000," Federer said. "It feels very different to any other match I've ever won. All those numbers didn't mean anything to me, but for some reason 1,000 means a lot because it's such a huge number. Just alone to count to 1,000 is going to take a while."

Connors had 1,253 victories, while Lendl had 1,071 wins. Federer said he is not thinking about surpassing Lendl and Connors's numbers at this point because he is focused on winning his first Grand Slam title since 2012.

Federer will have a chance to win his 18th Grand Slam title when he competes at the 2015 Australian Open in Melbourne next week. The 33-year-old expressed confidence about his chances in the first Grand Slam event of the year, saying he has a good chance to end his Grand Slam title drought in Melbourne.

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