With Roger Federer set to play his last professional tennis match at Laver Cup, throwback to when he won his first ATP points exactly 25 years ago today

Back on September 22 in 1997, Roger Federer earned his first 12 points in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, and as they say, the rest is history. Almost 25 years ago, Federer registered his first ATP ranking, tied at 803rd in the world, aged 16 back then.

After gaining his first ATP rankings points back in 1997, Federer rose to the numero uno position on the ladder on February 2, 2004. He stayed at the pinnacle of the rankings for a total of 237 weeks and was replaced by Rafael Nadal on August 18, 2008.

25 years and an illustrious career later, Roger Federer will play his final match with his great friend Rafael Nadal, while representing Team Europe in the Laver Cup against the American duo of Jack Sock and Frances Tiafoe on Friday.

Last Thursday, Roger Federer took to his social media accounts to bring the curtains down on his glorious career of 24 years. Federer made his professional ATP tour debut in Gstaad in 1998 and played his last tennis match at Wimbledon 2021. However, he was knocked out in straight sets by Poland's Hubert Hurkacz in the quarterfinals.

Federer will finish his career having played 1500+ professional matches and having won 20 Majors and 103 career titles in singles overall, going down as one of the best players to play the sport.

"It's been a great, great journey; for that, I'm really grateful” - Roger Federer

Roger Federer. Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images for Laver Cup

Reflecting back on his glorious career, where he ticked all the right boxes, Roger Federer shared his gratitude and said it has been a great journey on the tennis court over the years.

“I love my career from every angle. That's the bitter part [of retiring]. The sweet part was that I know everybody has to do it at one point. Everybody has to leave the game. It's been a great, great journey. For that, I'm really grateful,” he said.

Federer added that he would love to be able to "play forever" and that the rigors of traveling and playing against top players never felt difficult for him, concluding that "it was all perfect."

“You always want to play forever. I love being out on court, I love playing against the guys and I love travelling. I never really felt like it was that hard for me to do, of winning, learn from losing, it was all perfect,” Federer said in his press conference.

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