The double junior title he won at Wimbledon in 1998, in singles and doubles, was the launch of the professional career of the Swiss Roger Federer, who this Thursday announced his retirement after 24 years on the circuit, in which he has won 103 singles titles , including 20 Grand Slam tournaments.
Federer, considered one of the best athletes in history, was born in Basel on August 8, 1981. He will say goodbye, therefore, at the age of 41.
He started playing tennis at 8, although it wasn’t until he was 14 that he decided to take it seriously.
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In 1998, the year he made his professional debut, he doubled at junior Wimbledon, won the Orange Bowl and was a finalist at the junior US Open. The following year he made his debut in two of the greats, Roland Garros and Wimbledon, and in Davis and in 2000 he was Olympic bronze in the Sydney Games.
His first ATP title was in Milan on February 4, 2001, which took him to eighth place in the race for champions. That year he reached the quarterfinals of Roland Garros and Wimbledon.
After adding three titles in 2002, in the first months of the following year he conquered four before winning his first Grand Slam on July 6, 2003: he beat Australian Mark Philippoussis in the Wimbledon final. Two more titles in the remainder of the year consolidated him as number 2 in the ATP.
His victory at the 2004 Australian Open took him to the top of the world rankings at the beginning of February, a position he held uninterruptedly until August 2008. In addition, that year he revalidated Wimbledon and won his first US Open after a Olympic failure in Athens, he closed the season with 11 titles.
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In the years that completed this first reign, the Swiss totaled 35 tournaments, including the greats of Australia (2006 and 2007), Wimbledon (2005, 2006 and 2007), USA (2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008) and ten Masters 1000. He did not reach the full in the greats of 2006 and 2007, when Rafa Nadal defeated him in the final in Paris. His best years were 2005 and 2006, when he collected 11 titles in the first and 12 in the second.
Nadal dethroned him in August 2008. At that time, at the Beijing Olympics, he could only be gold in doubles. In 2009 he beat the Spaniard at the Roland Garros finals (his only title from him in Paris) and Wimbledon and lost the US final to Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro.
His second era as number 1 in world tennis lasted from August 2009 until May of the following year, when Nadal recovered it. He even dropped to number three. In that period, his greatest achievement was winning his fourth tournament in Australia, the two London ATP Masters Finals (2010 and 2011) and being a finalist in Paris, again against the Spaniard.
He recovered his game in part in 2012, when he added 6 titles, including Wimbledon and three Masters 1000, which allowed him to enjoy the head of the ranking ATP between July and October of that year, while the Olympic silver was hung in London and he was a finalist in the London Masters Cup.
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The year 2013 was his worst harvest in a decade: he only won the German tournament in Halle and fell to seventh place in the ATP.
He made several changes in 2014, used a racket with 22 centimeters more frame and inaugurated the direction of Stefan Edberg. Despite the fact that in the early stages he fell to 8th place, little by little the results accompanied him and he finished in second position.
This comeback included five titles, including two Masters 1000 and the semifinals in Australia or the USA and the Wimbledon final. Despite suffering from back problems, in November he won his only Davis Cup against France.
He improved his competition in 2015, with six titles, including the Cincinnati Masters 100, while Serbian Djokovic defeated him in the Wimbledon finals, the US Open and the London Masters Cup.
In the first months of 2016 he underwent surgery for a torn meniscus in his left knee, to which were added back problems, so at Wimbledon, when the knee injury was repeated, he chose to cut the season .
Fully recovered, he returned at the beginning of 2017 and that year he won seven tournaments, including the greats of Australia and Wimbledon and three Masters 1000, with which he returned to second place in ranking.
The following year, he added four tournaments, including Australia, and was a finalist in the 1000 Indian Wells, temporarily alternating with Nadal at number 1 until June 18 (totaling 310 weeks at the top).
In 2019, with four titles, the most important being the 1000 in Miami, he returned to Paris after four years to be a semifinalist against Nadal. Djokovic beat him in the Wimbledon final.
He was a semifinalist in Australia 2020 and on February 7 he broke the world record for attendance at a match with 51,954 spectators at a benefit in Cape Town with Nadal.
On February 19, he underwent an operation on his right knee, for which he returned to the operating room in June and chose to finish the season, to which was added the stoppage in the competition due to the coronavirus.
He delayed his return to the slopes until March 8, 2021 in Doha.
The Swiss tennis player, aged 41, announced his retirement this Thursday 2022, after more than one without competing due to injuries.
To his record must be added four Shanghai Masters Cups (2003, 2004, 2006 and 2007), and his continuation the ATP World Tour Finals in London (2010 and 2011).
The ITF has proclaimed him the best player in the years 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2009, and he received five Laureus (2005 to 2008 and 2018).
He is married to former tennis player Miroslava (Mirka) Vavrinec and they have four children. (D)
Source: Eluniverso
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