ROGER FEDERER

Roger Federer
Roger Federer ( born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked world No. 1 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 310 weeks, including a record 237 consecutive weeks, and finished as the year-end No. 1 five times. He won 103 singles titles on the ATP Tour, the second most of all time, including 20 major men’s singles titles, a record eight men’s singles Wimbledon titles, an Open Era joint-record five men’s singles US Open titles, and a joint-record six year-end championships. In his home country, he is regarded as “the greatest and most successful” Swiss sportsperson in history.Federer and Stan Wawrinka led the Switzerland Davis Cup team to their first title in 2014, following their Olympic doubles gold victory at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Federer also won a silver medal in singles at the 2012 London Olympics, finishing runner-up to Andy Murray. After a half-year hiatus in late 2016 to recover from knee surgery, Federer returned to tennis, winning three more majors over the next two years, including the 2017 Australian Open over Rafael Nadal and an eighth singles title at the 2017 Wimbledon Championships. At the 2018 Australian Open, Federer became the first man to win 20 major singles titles and shortly the oldest ATP world No. 1 at age 36. In September 2022, he retired from professional tennis following the Laver Cup.

A versatile all-court player, Federer’s perceived effortlessness made him highly popular among tennis fans. Originally lacking self-control as a junior, he transformed his on-court demeanor to become well-liked for his graciousness, winning the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award 13 times. He also won the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year award a record five times. Outside of competition, Federer played an instrumental role in the creation of the Laver Cup team competition. He is also an active philanthropist. He established the Roger Federer Foundation, which targets impoverished children in southern Africa, and has raised funds in part through the Match for Africa exhibition series. By the end of his career, Federer was routinely one of the top ten highest-paid athletes in any sport, and ranked first among all athletes with $100 million in endorsement income in 2020.Federer made his ATP debut at the 1998 Swiss Open Gstaad in his home country of Switzerland losing to Lucas Arnold Ker in the first round. Later that year, he won his first ATP match in Toulouse against Guillaume Raoux. He got a wildcard into the 1998 Swiss Indoors and lost in the first round to 4th seed and former world number 1 Andre Agassi. Federer finished his career as a 10-time champion of the tournament.

Federer entered the top 100 ranking for the first time on 20 September 1999 and started at the 1999 Marseille Open defeating the reigning champion of the 1998 French Open, Spaniard Carlos Moyá. His first final came at the Marseille Open in 2000, where he lost to fellow Swiss Marc Rosset.The 2006 season was statistically the best season of Federer’s career. In November 2011, Stephen Tignor, chief editorial writer for Tennis.com, ranked Federer’s 2006 season as statistically the second-best season of all time during the Open Era, behind Rod Laver’s Grand Slam year of 1969.Federer won 12 singles titles (the most of any player since Thomas Muster in 1995 and John McEnroe in 1984) and had a match record of 92–5 (the most wins since Ivan Lendl in 1982). Federer reached the finals in an astounding 16 of the 17 tournaments he entered during the season.In June 2009 Federer won his first French Open, giving him a championship in each of the four Grand Slam tournaments over the course of his career. Additionally, the win was his 14th Grand Slam title, which tied Federer with Sampras for the most in all time. The following month at Wimbledon, Federer defeated American Andy Roddick in a thrilling marathon five-set match (5–7, 7–6, 7–6, 3–6, 16–14) to win his sixth Wimbledon championship and his record 15th career Grand Slam title; he subsequently regained the world number one ranking. In January 2010 he won the Australian Open, defeating Andy Murray of Great Britain. Federer again defeated Murray in 2012 to win his record-tying seventh career Wimbledon title. A month later the two men faced off in the gold medal match at the London Olympics. This time, however, Federer lost to Murray and had to settle for a silver medal.Federer endured an injury-riddled 2013 season, and in 2014 he reached just one Grand Slam final (a loss at Wimbledon to Novak Djokovic). He did still manage a career highlight that year by leading Switzerland to its first-ever Davis Cup victory. In 2015 he appeared in the Wimbledon and U.S. Open finals but lost to Djokovic both times. Shortly after losing in the Wimbledon semifinals in July 2016, he withdrew from the remainder of that tennis season because of a persistent knee injury.

Federer entered the first Grand Slam tournament of 2017, the Australian Open, as the 17th-ranked men’s player but shocked the tennis world by winning the singles title in an epic five-set final against Nadal. Federer continued his resurgent play at that year’s Wimbledon, where he did not lose a single set during the tournament and won a record-breaking eighth Wimbledon title. Federer’s hot streak continued into 2018 when he won his sixth career Australian Open singles title. With the victory, Federer set a record for most Grand Slam men’s singles titles (20); that mark was later matched by Nadal and Djokovic, and in 2022 Nadal became the first to surpass it. Federer reached the semifinals at the 2019 French Open and advanced to the final at that year’s Wimbledon, where he lost an epic 4-hour 57-minute match (the longest final match in Wimbledon history) to Djokovic.

After losing in the semifinals at the 2020 Australian Open, Federer had two knee surgeries that caused him to miss the rest of the season. Although he returned in 2021, his play was limited. However, he did compete at Wimbledon, where he lost in straight sets in the quarterfinals. That proved to be his last Grand Slam event. Federer was again sidelined by knee problems, and in September 2022 he announced that he would be retiring after the Laver Cup. Later that month he played in his final competitive match, a doubles event in which he paired with Nadal; they lost.
In addition to tennis, Federer was involved in various philanthropic causes, with a particular interest in South Africa, his mother’s home country. In 2003 he established the Roger Federer Foundation, which sought to help underprivileged children in Switzerland and southern Africa, primarily through educational projects.