On this day back in 1981, one of the tennis’ all-time greats was born in the Swiss city of Basel.
Roger Federer has become an icon for many in the world of sport throughout his record-breaking career, which has resulted in him winning various accolades. Over the years he has been regarded as one of the highest-paid athletes in the world with Forbes magazine working out his yearly earnings in 2021 to be in the range of $90M. He has won more than $130M in prize money, recorded 224 wins over top 10 players and has claimed 103 ATP titles.
To mark Federer’s 40th birthday, here are 10 fascinating facts about the Swiss Maestro:-
- In July 1998 Federer played his first ATP event at the Gstaad Open when he was just 16. Losing in straight sets to Argentina’s Lucas Arnold Ker. Incredibly 16 players currently ranked in the ATP top 100 (as of 8/8/21) wasn’t born when that match took place.
- Federer remains the oldest player in history to have held the No.1 ranking since the system was introduced back in 1973. In 2018 he worked his way to the top at the age of 36, eclipsing the record which was previously held by Andre Agassi. During that year Federer was No.1 for a total of eight weeks across three separate stints.
- The Swiss maestro holds the record for most consecutive weeks at No.1 with a period lasting more than four years. He held the top spot between February 2, 2004, and August 17, 2008, which is 237 weeks. In total, he has spent 310 weeks as world No.1.
- Federer has played more than 1500 singles matches and 200 doubles matches on the Tour so far in his career. Incredibly, he has never retired from any match due to either injury or illness.
- No other male player has won recorded more Grand Slam wins than Federer. Federer’s tally currently stands at 369 victories over a 21-year period. In the major tournaments, he has played 58 quarter-finals, 46 semifinals and 31 finals. He is currently tied with Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal for most Grand Slam titles won by a man at 20 each.
- Federer holds the record for most titles won at five separate tournaments. In Basel and Halle he has won each of those titles 10 times. On top of that, he is also an eight-time Wimbledon Champion, a seven-time winner at the Cincinnati Masters and has won the year-end ATP Finals on six occasions.
- In the Davis Cup, he holds the Swiss record for most total wins achieved by a player (52) and the most singles wins (40). Switzerland has won the team competition only once, which was back in 2014 when Federer won two out of three matches he played in the final against France.
- Whilst the majority of his success has been in the singles, Federer has also won some high profile doubles titles during the early stages of his career. Overall he has claimed eight ATP titles in the doubles, including the 2003 Miami Masters with Max Mirnyi and the 2008 Olympic title with Stan Wawrinka.
- Federer just needs to win 24 more matches to overtake Jimmy Connors for the most ATP Tour-level matches ever won in the Open Era. He is currently at 1251 wins against 275 losses.
- Since 2001, Federer has only finished a season outside the world’s top 10 once. That was back in 2016 when he was sidelined from the Tour due to a knee injury.
