Changing the history of a sport is in the hands of very few.
One of those who has achieved it is Roger Federer.
The Swiss, who at the age of 41 has announced this Thursday that he will retire after the Laver Cup that takes place next week, revolutionized tennis and his legacy has promoted other figures such as Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic, with whom he forms the historical trio of the best tennis players of all time.
Until the Swiss broke into the fight for the Grand Slams at the beginning of the 21st century, the ceiling of a tennis player was in the 14 greats that the American Pete Sampras lifted.
Federer won his first Grand Slam at the age of 21 in 2003, on the Wimbledon grass, and his dominance in the London tournament lasted until 2008, when he fell in a tremendous final against a Rafa Nadal who became a fundamental figure in his career. .
First rivals and then friends, Federer and Nadal have met in nine Grand Slam finals, three for the Swiss and six for the Spaniard, the last one at the Australian Open in 2017, with both already consolidated as the two tennis players with the greatest of history (it was the 18th of the Swiss while the Spanish had 14).
The race to be the greatest in history seemed like a matter of two, but Novak Djokovic joined the party and devastated everything in his path until he sat down at the table of Federer and Nadal.
The Serb also managed to end the reign of the Swiss on the grass at Wimbledon, who had only lost one final out of eight disputed until the Serbian submitted him in 2014, 2015 and 2019. This year, Nadal and Djokovic have overtaken the veteran tennis player from Basel, who has not returned to a Grand Slam final since that defeat in London against Djokovic in five sets with three
tie breaks.
The grass, his favorite surface
Among Federer's 20 Grand Slams, the eight Wimbledon titles shine with special brilliance, the all-time record for a tennis player in London, one more than Djokovic.
But his mastery of the grass has gone far beyond the All England Club, being unsurpassed for several years in all the tournaments in which it was played on that surface.
Federer has won 19 grass-court tournament trophies (eight Wimbledon, ten Halle ATP 500 and one in Stuttgart), the same as Sampras (10) and Connors (9) combined, the two tennis players who follow him closest.
The Swiss has won 192 of the 221 he has played on that surface, 86.9% of victories.
From 2003 to 2008, there was no one who could beat him on the grass, adding 65 wins in a row, which led him to establish himself as number one in world tennis.
Winner of 1,251 career matches, Federer is second in the Open Era behind Jimmy Connors (1,274).
No one has as many Grand Slam wins as Federer (369 wins, 27 in a row between 2005-06 and 2006-07).
Until Nadal appeared on the circuit there was no one to dispute his dominance.
But the Swiss never stopped fighting, and in 2018 he became the oldest number one in the ATP ranking, at 36 years old.
The one from Basel is the tennis player who has been at number one in the ATP ranking for the longest time, only surpassed by Djokovic in the number of weeks at the top of the ranking (the Serb has 373, for the Swiss' 310).
In recent years, weighed down by age and injuries, he has lost his pulse for the race.
His last meeting was in July 2021 in the Wimbledon quarterfinals, from which he said goodbye after falling to Hurkacz.
Now, ranked 97th in the ATP ranking, Federer wants to say goodbye to the courts in his own way, always elegant.
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