A Short History of Roger Federer

Have you heard of this great tennis player called Roger Federer? If yes, how much do you know about him? Well, let’s have a brief about this guy and get to know him better. Roger Federer is a well-known tennis player in history. He holds the Grand Slam men’s singles championship with the most records.

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Roger Federer- Who Is He?

Roger Federer is a great tennis player who’s proud to be his countries’ top junior player at the age of 11. In 1998 he was a real pro to the game, and his skills grew better. In 2003 Roger was announced as the first Swiss player to win the Grand slam single title.

Over the years, he has managed to set a 20 Grand Slam singles record. Early 2017, at 35 years of age, this tennis genius managed to win the eighth record-breaking Wimbledon title.

Federer at His Early Life

Roger was born in Basel, Switzerland, on 1981 August 8. He is the son of Lynette Du Rand South African and Robert Federer from Switzerland. His parents met while on a pharmaceutical company business trip where they were co-workers.

At his early age, he showed a great interest in tennis. He also ventured into soccer playing at eight years of age, but soccer didn’t catch his interest as much as tennis. He excelled in tennis and acquired such excellent skills in mastering the game.

At 11 years, Roger Federer was one of the three top players for junior tennis in Switzerland. This encouraged him so much that he decided to quit all other sports a year later and concentrate on building his tennis career.

With continuous practice and hard work, he was entirely into the game at the age of 14. He would practice not less than 6 hours a week and play two to three tournaments every month. He also had three conditioning hours per week.

Among his favorite idols are Stefan Edberg and Boris Becker. At the age of 14, he emerged Switzerland national junior champion, which gained him a chance to train at the Swiss National Tennis Center.

Tennis as a Career

Roger is an aggressive tennis player who loves to finish his points early. In 1996, aged 16, he received a sponsorship, which led him directly to Tennis Federation Junior Tennis Circuit. He managed to win the Orange Bowl Junior Wimbledon title, which made him the ITF World Junior Tennis champion.

He has also won other titles, including Wimbledon, French Open, Grand Slams, and more. After winning Wimbledon boys singles in 1998, he became a professional a year later. 2001 was a big year for him; during the fourth round, he caused an excellent sensation by winning against Pete Sampras.

In 2004, Roger became No.2 in the world ranking. He also managed to win the U.S Open, Australian Open, and ATP Masters, where he continued to hold the Wimbledon singles title.

In 2005, he took the first rank, which followed several successes such as winning the U.S Opens and the Wimbledon singles for three years in a row. He held the top ranking till 2008, which means the year ’06 and ’07 were a real success. With this, Federer was named Laureus 2005-2008 World Sportsman of the Year.

2008 was a challenging year for Roger where he lost both Wimbledon and French Open to his rival Rafael Nadal. He also lost the 2008 Australian Open to Novak Djokovic, a young star. This pushed his ranking back to number two.

The 2009 season worked OK for Roger. He won the French Open against his fellow rival Robin Soderling hence completing the Grand Slam career. In the same year, he also won against Andy Riddick in a Wimbledon final and recorded the fifteenth Grand slam single title. His exquisite play helped him regain his first position in the world ranking.

His career still escalated in 2012, where he again won the Wimbledon singles title; however, things didn’t turn out so good in the year 2013. His rival Sergiy Stakhovsky; a 116th ranked player, eliminated him from the singles during the 2nd round.

He was also beaten by Tommy Robredo in their fourth-round hence losing 3 straight sets. Federer admitted it was hard for him, and he had a challenging time throughout the game. In 2015, he availed in U.S and Wimbledon open finals but still lost for both times. This broke him down in that he withdrew from the rest of the season in the following year due to his knee injury.

2017 was a whole different year for this tennis player. He recovered from the knee injury and joined the Grand Slam first tournament of 2017 and the Australian Open. Being the 17th ranked in men’s tennis due to the previous year’s withdrawal and performance, he shocked his fans by winning all the five-set single title against his opponent Nadal.

Roger Federer pushed through his resurgent play and won all sets in the 2017 Wimbledon, hence taking its eighth title. In 2018 he managed to win his 6th career in the Australian open single title. However, he did not win any other major during the year.

In 2019 he was able to reach the semi-finals in French opens. He advanced to the finals, but he lost to Djokovic in the longest recorded epic play in history, 4 hours 57 minutes. In his interview, he said that the knee injury contributed highly to that loss. The knee injury affected him more in the 2020 season, where he missed most tournaments.

Roger Federer Records

Some of the list records to Federer name include:

  • 20 Grand slams for all times
  • 30 Grand Slam finals
  • 310 weeks as world’s first tennis player
  • 8 Wimbledon titles
  • 6 year-end championship titles
  • 24 most consecutive finals