Roger Federer Biography

BIRTH: August 8, 1981, Basel, Switzerland

Roger Federer Biography : Championships, & Facts

Roger Federer is a Swiss tennis player recognized as one of the greatest tennis players of the 21st century. Federer remained on the world number one spot for a record of 302 weeks overall. He is famously known as “Fed Express” or “FedEx”. People even call him “Maestro” for his excellent skills.

Roger Federer was born on August 8, 1981, in Basel, Switzerland to Robert Federer and Lynette Federer. He took up tennis and soccer at the age of eight.

By the time Roger turned eleven, he was already amongst the Top 3 Junior Tennis Players in Switzerland. At the age of fourteen, he started to receive tennis coaching. His hard work and hours of practice secured him the title of the national junior champion in Switzerland when he was fourteen. This earned him a sponsorship at the Swiss National Tennis Center in Ecublens.

In 1996, Roger was selected as a member of the International Tennis Federation Junior Tennis Circle and got his first sponsorship at sixteen. He won the junior Wimbledon title and the Orange Bowl in 1998, shortly before he turned professional. He was known as the ITF World Junior Tennis Champion of the Year.

Roger’s first professional match was against Lucas Arnold Ker in Switzerland, which he lost. Finally, in 2001, he won the Hopman Cup. The same year he won his first singles title at the Milan Indoor Tournament. In 2001, he became the talk of the town after defeating reigning singles champion Pete Sampras, in the 2001 Wimbledon. He entered the top ten tennis rankings for the first time after winning the Master Series at the Hamburg Masters.

In the year 2003, Federer finally got his first win at the Wimbledon singles. He was the first Swiss man to win the Grand Slam title. Following his victory, Federer held the number two spot in the world rankings. In 2004, he got three singles titles, in the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. His back to back victories placed him at world number one ranking. He continued to win titles and retained his No. 1 ranking from 2004 to 2008.

Federer was the first player to reach the finals of four matches in one calendar year. He won the 2007 Australian Open, his tenth Grand Slam title. He became the second male player, in more than a hundred years, to earn five consecutive Wimbledon titles. Federer stayed at the No. 1 rank for 52 weeks. By 2009, he was considered as the “greatest player in tennis history” by tennis critics and his peers. In June 2009, Federer won his first French Open, his fourteenth Grand Slam title.

However, Federer’s performance was rocky in 2010. Federer started the year by winning the Australian Open. But he failed to reach the semi-finals of the French Open and Wimbledon. His ranking slipped to the number two spot. It was the first time since 2002 that Federer hadn’t won the Grand Slam.

In 2011, Federer was voted as the second most respected, admired and trusted person in the world, after Nelson Mandela. But he had a relatively slow year, failing to win the Grand Slam once again. In 2012 he finally won the Wimbledon by defeating Andy Murray, winning his seventh title for the championship. In the 2012 summer Olympics he won a silver medal, and a gold in the doubles. In 2013, he started to get coached by Severin Luthi and Stefan Edberg.

In 2015, Federer had the honor of being the third man in the open era with more than a thousand wins. Federer also won the Gerry Weber Open nine times. Federer passed the fourth round of the 2016 Australian Open and became the first male player to win 300 Grand Slam singles matches. But his form suffered a lot in 2016. He sustained a knee injury and underwent surgery to repair a torn muscle in his knee. In 2017, Federer defeated his rival Rafael Nadal in the final of the Australian Open, winning his record breaking eighteenth Grand Slam title.

Aside from his incredible sportsmanship, Federer does a lot of charitable work. In 2003, he founded the Roger Federer Foundation to help disadvantaged children with their education. Federer is a member of the South African-Swiss charity called IMBEWU.

Federer married Mirka Vavrinec, a former Women’s Tennis Association player on April 11, 2009. They first met during the Sydney Olympics in 2000. The tennis couple are parents to twin daughters and twin sons.