Roger Federer - the grass-court king

Roger Federer

Tennis superstar and the King of grass court, Roger Federer was born on August 8, 1981 in Binningen near Basel, Switzerland, to Swiss father Robert Federer and South African mother Lynette Du Rand. Federer’s parents met during a business trip. He holds both Swiss and South African citizenships.

Federer by the age of 11 was among the top 3 junior tennis players in Switzerland. At age 14, Federer became the national junior champion in Switzerland. He joined the International Tennis Federation junior tennis circuit in July 1996. In 1998, Federer won the junior Wimbledon title and the Orange Bowl. He was recognized as the ITF World Junior Tennis champion of the year.

Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg are Roger Federer’s idols. When Boris Becker won his first Wimbledon title, Federer was only 4 years old. From then, Federer used to watch tennis on television for hours and even imitated the legend, Boris Becker. However, Pete Sampras is Federer’s all-time favorite tennis player.

His Rivals

Rafael Nadal of Spain and Novak Djokovic of Serbia are the greatest rivals of Roger Federer.

Marriage and family

Federer is married to former Women’s Tennis Association player Mirka Vavrinec. They met while competing for Switzerland in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. They were married in Basel on 11 April 2009, at Wenkenhof Villa. On 23 July 2009, Mirka gave birth to twin girls, Myla Rose and Charlene Riva.

Charitable Efforts

Federer established the Roger Federer Foundation in 2003 to help disadvantaged people and to promote sports. In 2005, he auctioned his racquet from his US Open championship to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina. Later in 2006, he was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador by UNICEF. He had even arranged a relief rally with other tennis superstars to help the Tsunami and Haiti Earthquake victims. Due to these efforts, Roger Federer was named as 2010 Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

Awards & Achievements

Roger Federer has won a record 17 Grand Slam Titles. He is the hot favorite to win the Olympics gold this year in the Men’s Singles event.

• In 2003, he became the first Swiss man to win a Grand Slam after beating Mark Philippoussis of Australia in the Wimbledon final.
• The only man to win five consecutive titles at two different Grand Slams – Wimbledon and US Open.
• The first man to win Wimbledon-US Open double four years in a row.
• He became the only man in the Professional Era to win three consecutive majors twice in his career when he captured the 2007 Australian Open title.
• In 2009, he defeated Robin Soderling of Sweden to win his first French Open title and thus completing his career Grand Slam.
• In 2012 he regained his No.1 spot after defeating Andy Murray of England in the Wimbeldon final and tied the World No. 1 ranking record of 286 weeks (set by Pete Sampras).

Wimbledon: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

U.S. Open: 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008

Australian Open: 2004, 2006, 2007, 2010

French Open: 2009

Other Career Milestones

• He became the 23rd man to top the ATP rankings in 2004, and keeps the ranking for a record 237 consecutive weeks. By winning his seventh Wimbledon title, he also matched Sampras’s record of spending 286 weeks as world number one.
• Federer bursted on to the scene in 2001 when he ended Pete Sampras’s 31-match winning streak at Wimbledon in the fourth round before losing in the quarterfinals.
• Holds a record run of 24 consecutive final victories but David Nalbandian of Argentina stopped his run in the Masters Cup Final in 2005.
• His professional era record of 65 consecutive wins on grass was ended by Nadal in the 2008 Wimbledon final.
• Won an Olympic Men’s doubles gold medal with Stanislas Wawrinka at the 2008 Beijing Games.
• He spent eight years (2003–2010) continuously in the top 2 in the year-end rankings and nine years (2003–2011) in the Top 3, also a record among male players.