Federer celebrated 19 years since winning his first Grand Slam at Wimbledon, and 19 more followed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is little doubt that even more top trophies would have been on his mantelpiece had he not had to share the stage with fellow tennis giants Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, but in the eyes of many his cool demeanour, likable personality and exquisite skills will see him rightly regarded as the great player of all time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here is more information about this true European sporting great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Federer, who was born in the Swiss city of Basel in 1981 to a South African mother, emerged when he was crowned junior Wimbledon champion in 1999 and he won his first senior title at the Milan Indoor tournament two years later when he beat Julien Boutter in the final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, he made a major breakthrough later that summer when he beat four-time defending champion Pete Sampras over five sets at Wimbledon to reach the quarter-finals, where he would be beaten in four sets by local favourite Tim Henman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That was when he announced himself on the big stage and he continued to develop the following year when he reached his first Masters final, losing to Andre Agassi in Miami before he moved into the world top ten with a victory over Marat Safin in Hamburg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Federer claimed his first Grand Slam in 2003 when he won Wimbledon with a final victory over Mark Philippoussis and from there he never looked back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the next few years, he claimed several remarkable records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2004 he became the first player to win three Slams in one calendar year since Mats Wilander in 1988 and his victory at the Australian Open took him to world number one for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two years later came his greatest season, when he reached the final of 16 of the 17 tournaments he played in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He won 12 tournaments and 92 of his 97 matches, winning three Grand Slams and losing to Rafael Nadal in the French.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2007, he won the Australian Open without losing a set – the first player since Bjorn Borg at the 1980 French Open, and in 2009 he finally got his hands on the clay-court major after beating Robin Soderling in the final following a surprise defeat for Nadal against the Swede.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Olympic gold in the singles slipped Federer by as he claimed silver when Andy Murray won in London in 2012, but he did come out on top of the doubles with Stanislas Wawrinka in Beijing four years earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But after that win over Nadal, Federer went on to win six further Grand Slams, the last one coming at the 2018 Australian Open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was world number one of 310 weeks in total, which included a record run of 237 consecutive weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Federer claimed 103 ATP singles titles and 20 Grand Slams (eight Wimbledons, which is also a record, five US Opens, six Australian Opens and one French Open).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Roger Federer will go down as one of the all-time great tennis players after calling time on his career in September.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":39465,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[199],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tennis"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n