Twelve months have passed since Roger Federer suffered a semifinal loss to Milos Raonic at Wimbledon. Now back to full fitness, the Swiss is looking to rewrite the record books once again.
On Friday he will play Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic. Federer currently leads their head-to-head 18-6 and won their past seven meetings. It will be their first meeting on the grass since the Wimbledon 2010, when Berdych triumphed in four sets.
Should Federer get the better of the Czech at SW19, he will become the second oldest man to reach a Wimbledon final. The record is currently held by Ken Rosewall, who reached the 1974 final at the age of 39. Rosewall participated in a total of four grand slam finals after his 36th birthday.
Oldest men to reach a Grand Slam final (Open Era)
Ken Rosewall 1974 US Open (39 years 310 days)
Ken Rosewall 1974 Wimbledon (39 years 246 days)
Ken Rosewall 1972 Australian Open (37 years 62 days)
Mal Anderson 1972 Australian Open (36 years 306 days)
Ken Rosewall 1971 Australian Open (36 years 73 days)
Roger Federer?? 2017 Wimbledon?? (35 years 342 days)
The 35-year-old is also bidding to become the only active player at SW19 to record 90 wins in the tournament. Heading into the semifinals, Federer has a win-loss of 89-11 since his debut in 1999. Between 2003-2009 he was undefeated in six tournaments, recording a win-loss record of 48-1. To put this into perspective, he has won at least 31 more matches than any other player in the big four (Novak Djokovic 58-10, Andy Murray 57-10 and Rafael Nadal 43-10).
Finally, the world No.5 is looking to reach his 11th Wimbledon final. No other player has reached the final stage of the tournament more times than Federer. Boris Becker and Pete Sampras come joint second with a total of seven appearances. Overall, Federer is looking to reach a record 29th grand slam final.
Federer goes into today’s match with a winning 10-1 win-loss record in Wimbledon semifinals. Out of those ten, nine were achieved in straight sets.
Federer’s Wimbledon record
1999 – R1
2000 – R1
2001 – QF
2002 – R1
2003 – CH
2004 – CH
2005 – CH
2006 – CH
2007 – CH
2008 – RU
2009 – WR
2010 – QF
2011 – QF
2012 – WR
2013 – R2
2014 – RU
2015 – RU
2016 – SF
2017 – ??
