Federer no stranger to facing a home-favorite

Federer d. Hewitt 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 in R16 of 2010 Australian Open

In a few hours, Roger Federer will play against Lleyton Hewitt in the 2014 Brisbane final. It is the pair's 27th meeting, tying them with Stefan Edberg and Ivan Lendl for ninth most meetings between two players in the Open Era. It will be the fifth meeting in Hewitt's home country of Australia. However, none of the previous meetings were in a final.

Federer, who will be playing in his 114th career final, has become accustomed to meeting the home-favorite in finals. This will be his 19th meeting against a player who represents the country that the tournament is held in. In the previous 18 finals, Federer holds a record of 13-5, including a nine-match winning streak that spanned from 2003 to 2009.

However, Federer's recent record in these finals should give Hewitt some hope. Federer has won just one of the last three, which includes his straight-set loss against Andy Murray in the Gold Medal match in London.

Here is a look at all of the finals in Federer's career against players on home soil:

No.	Year	Tournament	Opponent	Result
1	2002	Milan	Davide Sanguinetti	L 6-7(2), 6-4, 1-6
2	2002	Miami	Andre Agassi	L 3-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4
3	2003	Halle	Nicolas Kiefer	W 6-1, 6-3
4	2003	Masters Cup	Andre Agassi	W 6-3, 6-0, 6-4
5	2005	Cincinnati	Andy Roddick	W 6-3, 7-5
6	2005	US Open	Andre Agassi	W 6-3, 7-6(0), 4-6, 6-3
7	2006	Indian Wells	James Blake	W 7-5, 6-3, 6-0
8	2006	US Open	Andy Roddick	W 6-2, 4-6, 7-5, 6-1
9	2007	Cincinnati	James Blake	W 6-1, 6-4
10	2008	Halle	Philipp Kohlschreiber	W 6-3, 6-4
11	2009	Madrid	Rafael Nadal	W 6-4, 6-4
12	2010	Madrid	Rafael Nadal	L 4-6, 6-7(5)
13	2010	Cincinnati	Mardy Fish	W 6-7(5), 7-6(1), 6-4
14	2011	Paris	Jo-Wilfried Tsonga	W 6-1, 7-6(3)
15	2012	Indian Wells	John Isner	W 7-6(7), 6-3
16	2012	Halle	Tommy Haas	L 6-7(5), 4-6
17	2012	Wimbledon	Andy Murray	W 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-4
18	2012	London Olympics	Andy Murray	L 2-6, 1-6, 4-6
19	2014	Brisbane	Lleyton Hewitt	??

One of reasons that Federer is so great for the sport of tennis is that he is internationally loved. However, this table shows that there are several countries that maybe shouldn't love him as much as they do. Federer has spoiled the United States' hopes of having a winner from their country nine times. He has done the same twice in Germany and one time in Italy, Spain, France, and Great Britain. Today, Federer will try to add Australia to that list for his 78th career title, which by the way, will put him ahead of John McEnroe for career titles won, moving him into third place in the Open Era.