Roger Federer is undeniably the most iconic and influential tennis player of all time. Whether it be for his numerous athletic accomplishments, or his positive attitude on and off the court, he has eternally engraved his name into the history of tennis. He has claimed 20 Grand Slams (8 of which are Wimbledon titles), 28 Masters 1000 titles, and 6 year-end championship titles. These, and a variety of other tennis titles, have led to Federer to hold 103 ATP tour titles. This is the second most titles held in the world, only being beaten by the 109 that are held by Jimmy Conners, who is another tennis legend. While a vast majority of the tennis community consider themselves so far beneath Roger, he had to work extraordinarily hard to reach the pinnacle in which he has reached. His spot as world #1 was by far a task that took many years of trial and error, and luckily he kept the right mindset the entire way through. I wouldn’t have wanted any other man to have had the same lasting impact that Federer has created. As of September 2022, following the Laver Cup, Roger Federer decided that it was time to leave this sport in which he has changed forever. As it has been a little bit over a year since this has happened, I believe a good way we can thank Federer for all of his fantastic matches would be to share the incredible journey which led to such an important role in the development of Tennis.
Roger was born on August 8th, 1981, in Basel, Switzerland. Early on in life, he took an interest in several sports, especially excelling in soccer and tennis. By 11, Roger became one of the top 3 juniors in all of Switzerland due to his excellent tennis technique. At age 12, Roger decided that he needed to focus his life purely on tennis. He dropped soccer, and any of the other sports in which he may have played, and trained his body specifically for tennis. At age 14, Roger was invited to Switzerland’s National Training Center. Federer trained up to six hours a week in order to perfect his strokes and footwork. He hoped that by doing so, he would be following in the footsteps of his idols, Stefan Edberg and Boris Becker. As a 14 year old boy, Roger was competing in up to two tournaments monthly. Roger’s professional career began in 1998, being 17 years old, playing his first professional match. Roger made his ATP debut at the 1998 Swiss Open Gstaad in Switzerland. Unfortunately, Federer was eliminated in round one in a match against Lucas Arnold. In 2003, at the age of 21, Roger Federer won his first Wimbledon title. Between then and 2009, he would go on to win 21 out of 28 possible titles. Roger’s reign as a tennis legend was just beginning. Roger continued winning title after title. He won five in 2010, six in 2012, another in 2013, five in 2014, six in 2015, seven in 2017, four in 2018, and another four in 2019. As his career furthered and he got older, while he was still winning titles, he was definitely winning a lot less. That being said, he was most definitely still one of the best tennis players that was still playing. On top of this, Federer also has the longest reign as world #1, being a ridiculous 310 weeks. He is also one of the very few players to simultaneously hold all four grand slams titles. Along with these many achievements, Roger also co-founded one of my all time favorite doubles tournaments, the Laver Cup. The iconic black courts and the wide variety of players from across the globe made the Laver Cup sky rocket in popularity, making it one of the best selling tennis tournaments of all time. In the Laver Cup 2022, Team World defeated Team Europe for the first time with a 13-8 victory. Unfortunately, followed up by this, Roger Federer officially retired from tennis, leaving the sport much better than he found it.
Whether it be his irreplaceable kindness and sportsmanship, to his absolutely incredible athletic abilities, Roger Federer is the perfect tennis player. He is always extremely respectful to everybody he plays in matches; he always plays until there is nothing left to play, and no matter how the match ends, he is always just happy to play tennis. So in conclusion, I can safely say that Roger Federer was and probably will forever be the best tennis player to ever walk the courts. No one will ever be able to replicate his precision nor his consistency, and definitely not his attitude. Roger Federer will always and forever be missed in the tennis community, as the footprint he left on this sport will forever be engraved deep into not only the history of the game but into the hearts of everyone who is currently playing tennis today.
