Roger Federer

Background

Roger Federer was born in Basel, Switzerland, on August 8, 1981, to Robert and Lynette Federer. He has one sibling: Diana. In 1996, he played his first junior match at a tournament in Switzerland and became a member of the I.T.F. Junior Tennis League. However, his major accomplishments as a junior player came at Wimbledon in 1998 when he won the boys’ singles final and defeated Michaël Llodra and Andy Ram in doubles matches. He also reached the U.S. Open Junior final in the same year but lost to David Nalbandian. By the end of the year, Federer had been given the number one junior world ranking and became the I.T.F. Junior World Champion.

In 2001, Federer won the 2001 Hopman Cup with world number one, Martina Hingis, and a singles win at the 2001 Milan Indoor tournament. His international breakthrough came at the 2001 Wimbledon Championships when he faced the four-time defending champion, Pete Sampras. Federer beat the Sampras in a five-set match to reach the quarterfinals, where he lost to Tim Henman. A year later, Federer won his first Master Series event at the Hamburg Masters on clay, finishing at number six. In 2003, he won his first Grand Slam singles title at Wimbledon. Federer’s winning streak continued the following year when he won three Grand Slam singles titles in one season and his first major hard-court title at the Australian Open, making him the world number one. Soon after, he won his second Wimbledon crown and defeated Lleyton Hewitt at the U.S. Open. In 2005, Federer won four Masters wins, got 11 singles titles, and maintained his position as number one for the entire season. The next year, he won 12 singles titles, three Wimbledon Championships, four hard-surface Master finals, and the Swiss Indoors in Basel for the first time. Federer maintained his winning streak in 2007. But he lost his world number one title to Rafael Nadal the next year due to a back injury. The 2009 season was Federer’s comeback. He won a record 15 singles titles and his first French Open title.

In 2010, Federer beat Nadal and won indoor titles at the Swiss Indoors, Stockholm Open, and the A.T.P. Finals in London. He returned to glory after a year of losses in 2012. Three years later, he surpassed 9,000 career aces, the fourth person since 1991. In 2009, Federer married Miroslava Vavrincová, a former Women’s Tennis Association player whom he met when competing in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. She gave birth to identical twin girls the same year. Five years later, the couple had a pair of twin boys.