Federer and Sampras smile as they play against Agassi and Nadal during their doubles exhibition doubles in the Hit for Haiti fund raiser event at the Indian Wells.
Federer and Sampras smile as they play against Agassi and Nadal during their doubles exhibition doubles in the Hit for Haiti fund raiser event at the Indian Wells. Reuters

World number three Roger Federer beat Radek Stepanek in the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami and thereby equaled Pete Sampras' total of career singles victories.

Federer made it 762 wins, equaling seven-time Wimbledon champions Sampras' record after a 6-3 6-3 win over Czech Republic's Radek Stepanek. American Jimmy Connors is the leader of the six men who have won more matches than Federer and Sampras with 1,242 wins.

Federer took just 62 minutes to see off Stepanek after converting all of the three chances he had to break. With the win, he progressed into the third round and will now face Spains's Juan Monaco.

After the match, Federer was fairly modest in equaling Sampras. He said, It's nice tying Pete, but he could have played for many more years. He could still win some matches on tour now if he wanted to. It's a funny stat, but it shows how long I've been around and how much I've won around the world.

On his performance on the day, he said, I was able to play solid and keep him moving and serve at a high first-serve percentage. All in all, I'm really pleased. It is hard to put balls away, you have to really set it up perfectly. It reminds me slightly of clay in terms of how you can construct points. You have to really create the way you play the points.

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