He was the first tennis player to win three Grand Slam tournaments in one year (2004, 2006 and 2007) and was at the top of the world rankings for a total of 310 weeks. The 237 weeks without a break are still a record today. Milestones of a unique career that is now coming to an end after 25 years.
Superstar Roger Federer announced the end of his career. The 41-year-old announced on Thursday that the Laver Cup in London next week would be his last assignment on the ATP tour. The reason given by the long-standing world number one “Maestro” was physical complaints. “This is a bittersweet decision because I will miss everything the Tour has given me,” Federer wrote.
During his career, the Swiss has triumphed in 20 Grand Slam tournaments. He won eight times alone at Church Road in Wimbledon. The Swiss has 28 trophies from Masters tournaments and holds another record with 24 events won in the ATP 500 series. He became Olympic doubles champion in Beijing in 2008 and won the Davis Cup with Switzerland in 2014.
The son of a Swiss father and a South African mother turned professional in 1998, celebrated his first tournament victory in Milan in 2001 and made his breakthrough in 2003 with the first of eight triumphs on the Wimbledon lawn. In the years that followed, Federer came close several times to become the second player to win all four Grand Slams in a calendar year, but he failed to beat Rafael Nadal on clay at the French Open. It was only when Nadal missed the final there in 2009 that Federer also prevailed in Paris.
Federer fought big duels with Nadal as well as later with Djokovic and suffered bitter defeats, including in Wimbledon finals. In the course of his more than two-decade career, he reported back several times after injuries or weaker years.
In 2012 he climbed back to the top of the world rankings with his Wimbledon victory, in 2017 he beat Nadal in a memorable final at the Australian Open in Melbourne, where a year later he also won the last of his 20 Grand Slam titles. In 2019, after missing match points, he lost the Wimbledon final against Djokovic, who, like Nadal, replaced him as number one in the world. Above all, however, he inspired tennis fans with his aesthetics on and his human, down-to-earth nature off the court.
Federer traveled the world with his wife Mirka, a former professional player from the Czech Republic, the couple’s two pairs of twins and his companions – albeit in moderation. Early on, he limited his program to important tournaments to give his body breaks.
And so his fans had hoped until the end that he could add another title to his picture book career, possibly even at Wimbledon. But the health problems in the past few months and years were too great.
