Roger Federer

Roger Federer

Roger Federer (born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss professional tennis player who, as of October 2013, is ranked world no. 6 by the ATP. Numerous commentators, pundits, former and current players of the sport have deemed Federer the greatest tennis player of all time.

Federer was born at the Basel Cantonal Hospital in Basel, Switzerland. His father, Robert Federer, is Swiss, from Berneck, near the borders between Switzerland, Austria and Germany, and his mother, Lynette Federer (born Durand), from Kempton Park, Gauteng, is a South African whose ancestors were Dutch and French Huguenots. Federer has one sibling, his older sister Diana. He holds both Swiss and South African citizenship. He grew up in nearby Birsfelden, Riehen and then Münchenstein, close to the French and German borders and speaks (Swiss) German, French and English fluently, German being his native language.

Federer was raised as a Roman Catholic and met Pope Benedict XVI while playing the 2006 Internazionali BNL d'Italia tournament in Rome. Like all male Swiss citizens, Federer was subject to compulsory military service in the Swiss Armed Forces. However, in 2003 he was deemed unfit because of a long-standing back problem and was subsequently not required to fulfill his military obligation. He grew up supporting F.C. Basel and the Swiss National Football Team. Federer also credits the range of sports he played as a child—he also played badminton and basketball—for his hand-eye coordination. Federer has stated in various interviews that he is an "avid cricket fan" having met Sachin Tendulkar twice. "I was always very much more interested if a ball was involved," he says. Most tennis prodigies, by contrast, play tennis to the exclusion of all other sports. In later life, Federer has been friends with the golfer Tiger Woods.

He holds several men's world records of the Open Era: holding the world no. 1 position for 302 weeks overall; including a 237-consecutive-week stretch at the top from 2004 to 2008; winning 17 Grand Slam singles titles; reaching the finals of each Grand Slam tournament at least five times (an all-time record); and reaching the Wimbledon final eight times. He is one of seven men, and one of four in the Open Era, to capture the career Grand Slam, and one of three (with Andre Agassi and Rafael Nadal) to do so separately on clay, grass, and hard courts. Federer also shares the Open Era record for most titles at the Australian Open with Agassi and Novak Djokovic (4), at Wimbledon with Pete Sampras (7) and at the US Open with Jimmy Connors and Sampras (5).

Federer has appeared in 24 men's Grand Slam finals, with 10 in a row, both records, and appeared in 18 of 19 finals from the 2005 Wimbledon Championships through to the 2010 Australian Open. He is the only man to reach at least the semifinals of 23 consecutive Grand Slam tournaments, from the 2004 Wimbledon Championships through the 2010 Australian Open. At the 2013 Australian Open, he reached a record 33rd Grand Slam semi-final, and at the 2013 French Open a record 36th consecutive Grand Slam quarter-final. He has also won the most matches, 260, in men's Grand Slam tournaments.

Federer's ATP tournament records include winning six ATP World Tour Finals, playing in the finals at all nine ATP Masters 1000 tournaments (a record shared with Djokovic and Nadal), and having won the most prize money of any player in history, with over $78,000,000. He also won the Olympic gold medal in doubles with his compatriot Stanislas Wawrinka at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games and the Olympic silver medal in singles at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. He spent eight years (2003–2010) continuously in the top 2 in the year-end men's rankings and ten (2003–2012) in the top 3. Federer is the first tennis player, male or female, to earn more than 50 Million US Dollars in prize money.

Federer has won the ATPWorldTour.com Fans' Favourite Award a record eleven times straight (2003–2013) and the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award (voted for by the players) a record nine times (2004–2009, 2011–2013), both being awards indicative of respect and popularity. He also won the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of the Year Award twice in 2006 and 2013. He was named the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year for a record four consecutive years (2005–2008). Federer is at times referred to as the Federer Express, shortened to Fed Express or FedEx, and the Swiss Maestro,[21] or just Maestro. He is the only tennis male player to be No. 1 for more than 300 weeks.