Roger Federer

Awards & Achievements

• Holds the most number of Grand Slam Singles titles (20)
• Ranked world no. 1 tennis player for 310 weeks (237 consecutive weeks)
• 8 Wimbledon titles: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012 and 2017
• 6 Australian Open titles: 2004, 2006, 2007, 2010, 2017 and 2018
• 5 U.S. Open titles: 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008
• 1 French Open title: 2009
• Sportsmanship Award for a record thirteen times: 2004-09 and 2011-17
• Have won six ATP World Tour Finals
• 27 ATP World Tour Masters 1000
• 20 ATP World Tour 500
• ATP Fans' Favorite award for fifteen consecutive years: 2003-17
• Honoured as the Swiss Sports Personality of the Year for a record seven times
• Chosen as the ATP Player of the Year for five times: 2004-07 and in 2009
• ITF World Champion for five times: 2004-07 and in 2009
• Honoured with the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year award for five years (2005-08 consecutively and in 2018)
• The only individual to have won the BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year award four times
• Bagged his 100th Career Singles title at the Dubai Tennis Championship 2019 which was his 8th Dubai Tennis title and became the second person to reach the mark in the Open Era

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When you do something best in life, you don't really want to give that up - and for me it's tennis.

Here we are talking about the man who is considered as one of the most outstanding and sturdy tennis players in the world; winning various competitions and adding many feathers in his cap- Roger Federer. A professional tennis player, who holds both Swiss and South African citizenships, knows English, German, Swiss, German and French very well, and believes in humanity. This Swiss Maestro has dominated the tennis world in the 21st century, and always credits his family and fans for all his success both on and off the court. Rogers's fans, colleagues and competitors all admit that he has the finest skill to play as a base-liner and a volleyer with exceptional footwork and shot-making capability. The tennis lovers have honoured him as the greatest athlete of his generation, the title he certainly deserves.

Born in Basel, Switzerland on 8th August 1981, as the only son of Robert Federer and Lynette Federer, and the younger brother of Diana Federer, Roger started playing tennis and soccer at the age of 8 and in three years, earned a place amongst the top junior tennis players of the country. It was then he realised his potentials in tennis and decided to focus only on that. Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg's performance inspired him for his dream to reign the tennis court, and he used to impersonate their playing style while practising which helped him a lot to improve. His knack in the sport opened the gates of ITF for him in 1996. After two years, he dominated the junior Wimbledon Championship (both singles and doubles) and the Orange Bowl junior tournament. Post this achievement, the Fed express took speed and ended the year turning pro while competing in the ATP Tour in Gstaad.

I'm a very positive thinker, and I think that is what helps me the most in difficult moments.

Federer burst out into the international scene when he competed at the Wimbledon Championship of 2001 facing the four-time defending champion Pete Sampras and reached the quarterfinals but ended losing to the English player Tim Henman in the fourth-set tiebreaker. The following year, Federer won his Master series event at the 2002 Hamburg Masters on clay and earned a position in the top ten ranking for the first time. In 2003, Federer bagged his first Grand Slam singles title, defeating Mark Philippoussis in the finals. Post that; he bagged his first and only doubles Masters Series 1000 event with Max Mirnyi. 2004 proved to be another fruitful year for Federer as he won three Grand Slam singles titles, being the first person to earn such feat since 1988. The same year, he became world’s no.1 after winning his first major hard-court title at the Australian Open.

Season 2006 proved to be the best season of Federer’s career as he won 12 singles titles including three Grand Slam singles and finishing the year as world no.1. After his Wimbledon victory of the year, he scripted history by becoming the only player to dominate three major events in a year for three years (2004, 2006 and 2007). 2008 brought bad luck to his career as he went through many injuries with which it was hard to sustain at the court but, he didn't lose hope and fought as a saviour in each match, defeating Andy Murray at the U.S. Open and capturing another Grand Slam singles title. Federer went on his way to the Olympics where he bagged gold in doubles along with Stan Wawrinka. Federer’s career has always been a roller coaster ride where one year brought series of victories, another year proved hard for him either due to injuries or tough clashes. In 2012, Federer again had a career graph rise, having the highest winning percentage and number of titles since 2007. That year, Roger broke the record of Pete Sampras of being at the top of the list of world’s no.1. At the Olympics of that year, Federer had a tough clash with Del Potro that held for 4-hour 26-minutes and went to the finals to face off Andy Murray to whom he lost in a lopsided match and brought home a silver medal.

What I think I've been able to do well over the years is play with pain, play with problems, play in all sorts of conditions.

In 2014, Roger changed his rackets for the first time in his career after suffering major defeats last year, and despite his injuries and loads of past failures, he made his performance count at the Davis Cup defeating Richard Gasquet and winning the cup for his nation for the first time in the history. In the Wimbledon of 2015, Federer played flawlessly against Andy Murray in the semi-finals but lost the match in four-sets to Novak Djokovic. The same year, he bagged the Cincinnati Masters for the seventh time, dominating Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic. It was the first time that he had defeated two top-notch players of the world at the same tournament. 2016 was not his year as he suffered a major knee injury, back injury and a stomach virus that forced him to quit many major tournaments as well as to face several defeats.

His announcement of not participating in the Olympics that year upset many of his followers, and many of the analysts considered that it was the end of his career. Due to his withdrawal from many of the major tournaments of last year, made his name slipped to the 17th position of the world ranking which was the lowest over 15 years of his career. With a firm will to show the world that he had not taken off, he beat the top-rankers Tomáš Berdych and Kei Nishikori at the Australian Open and became the oldest player to compete in the semi-finals of the Grand Slam since 1991. In the semi-finals, Federer again had a tough clash with Rafael Nadal and eventually won the Australian title, making it history in itself as it was the 100th match at the Australian Open, having his first Grand Slam victory over Nadal, outside the grass courts of Wimbledon. By defeating Marin Cilic in the finals of the Wimbledon, Federer bagged his 8th singles title and overall 19th major title.

Throughout his sports career, Federer has been seen to respect his rivals and opponents both on and off the field. Even, at the inaugural Laver Cup in 2017, he was teamed with Rafael Nadal, his longtime competitor but he showed great sportsmanship and the duo led to victory over the top-notch duo of Sam Querrey and Jack Sock. He also bagged the single events of the competition, defeating Sam Querrey and Nick Kyrgios. 2018 led him to become the first player to bag 20 Grand Slam titles with his sixth title of the Australian Open. Federer has always uplifted himself and his career like a soldier who never bows down in front of failure no matter how worse the scenario gets. Indeed, players like him are the real winners and their story a great legend for others to pursue success.