Roger Federer

Roger Federer (born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss professional tennis player. As of 21 June 2010, he is ranked World No. 2 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He previously held the number one position for a record 237 consecutive weeks and 285 total weeks, one week behind record holder Pete Sampras.

Roger Federer began playing tennis when he was eight years old. By the time he was ten, people were already talking about Roger’s sweet touch with the racket and his competitive attitude. Roger would sometimes beat other kids his age so badly they would start crying and Roger would often cry and smash rackets himself if he ever lost a match. Roger left home when he was 13 to train at a top-rated tennis academy in Switzerland and was the number one ranked junior player in the world by the time he was 16.

In 1998, Roger Federer began playing on the professional tennis circuit. He won his first ATP tournament in Milan in 2001 and quickly worked his way up the men’s world tennis rankings. In 2003, he won six tournments including his first Grand Slam tournament by defeating Mark Philippoussis at Wimbledon. By 2004, Federer was the number one ranked tennis player on the planet and won three of the four Grand Slam tournaments that year including Wimbledon, the US Open and the Australian Open. Federer has since gone onto win twelve more Grand Slam titles, bringing his grand total up to 13. Roger has won the US Open five times and the Aussie Open, three times. The only major tournament that he has not won is the French Open in Paris.

Roger Federer’s professional tennis career is still quite young, but some are predicting he could beat Pete Sampras’ record of 14 Grand Slam tennis titles in 2009. Federer is an extremely intelligent tennis player who’s known for his dominating forehand and rarely making mistakes on the court. He has already won 13 Grand Slam titles and his smart, consistent play means he’ll be a favorite to win several more before his career is over.

So far in 2010, Federer has played in six tournaments and has won the Australian Open. In the final, Federer defeated Murray 6–3, 6–4, 7–6(11), whom he also beat in the 2008 US Open final. Federer made it to one Masters 1000 final in the Madrid Open, which he lost to Nadal 6-4, 7-6. At the French Open, Federer failed to reach a Grand Slam semifinal for the first time since the 2004 French Open, losing to Söderling 3-6, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4. Nadal won the tournament for the fifth time and replaced Federer as World No 1. Federer was just one week away from equalling Pete Sampras’s record of 286 weeks as World No. 1. In preparation for Wimbledon, Federer once again competed in Halle but was defeated in the final by Lleyton Hewitt 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-4. This is the first time since 2001 that Federer has entered Wimbledon having won only one title for the year. At the 2010 Wimbledon Championships Federer struggled to beat Alejandro Falla winning in a five set marathon 5-7,4-6,6-4,7-6(1) (Falla served for the match at 5-4), 6-0. He is next to play Ilija Bozoljac in the second round.