Roger Federer- A tennis playing legend

Roger Federer was born on August 8, 1981 in Basel, Switzerland to a Swiss father and a South African mother. Tennis was Roger’s family passion and at a very young, he was encouraged to pursue a career in it. Federer first started playing the sport when he was 8 years old. He played tennis in addition to soccer until the age of 12 years, when he started to concentrate only on his tennis game. By the time he was 14 years old, Roger was the junior Swiss champion for all age groups.

However, the inability to control his temper was a huge problem that afflicted him throughout his childhood. He was often out of control on the court. From the age of 10 years to the age of 14 years, Roger spent more time with his coach, Carter. Carter spent countless hours tutoring Federer by discussing the mental side of the game, not only just strategy and psychology but also about the importance of being gracious, polite and reigning in one’s emotions. By 1998, Roger's last year in the junior's circuit, he was ranked number one in the world and won the junior boy's singles and doubles titles at Wimbledon, and was the runner up at the U.S. Open. In 1999, Roger started to play for the Swiss Davis cup team and by the end of the tennis season, was the youngest player to finish inside the ATP's top 100 rankings. In the year 2000 he qualified for the Summer Olympics and went almost all the way, just short of losing the bronze title.

Three years later, Federer scored his first major victory in at Wimbledon. Ranked No. 1 in the beginning of 2004, he continued his winning streak by capturing three of the four Grand Slam titles (Australian and U.S. opens and the Wimbledon). Playing with a combination of intelligence and finesse, he has a dominant forehand, a mighty single-handed backhand, and an explosive serve. Throughout his career dominance in grand slams Raphael Nadal has been his major rival. Nadal has prevented Federer from winning in clay courts like the French Open from 2005 to 2008 and leads the matches faced by each other at 13-7. One may argue that on a one-on-one basis, Nadal has a better performance. Even though I see Nadal as an emerging star and have always cheered Nadal for grand slams events against Federer in the last few years, I have to admit that Federer is a better performer when it comes to winning big events. The 2008 Wimbledon final in which Nadal won the match has been lauded by many long term critics as the greatest in tennis history. However, when comparing two players’ finesses, it is tested by facing not only each other, but by fitness and winning over other tennis world ranked players. In this aspect, Federer has proven himself over Nadal's 6 grand slam wins with a victory of 15 grand slams.

Roger has always been known to be one of the uniquely gifted tennis players, with extensive skills and styles during his games. His volleyer and baseliner are both exceptional and powerfully dictate his game. Roger is known to be efficiently capable of producing top-spin shots which allows him to open the angles of cross courts together with hitting the ball in full pace. Former Tennis champion John McEnroe has referred to it as "the greatest shot in our sport". Though there was once a time when the critics considered his backhand as the weakest of his side, he has improved it considerably over time and now it has proved to be essential in some of his recent major victories. The most difficult to comprehend of all his playing styles is his serve, where he tosses the ball at almost exactly the same spot no matter where he intends to strike it and typically has his back on his opponent. His major control is his brilliant footwork and his balance during the games, which are the two most essential elements required by a tennis player. Roger is also considered to be one of the quickest movers in the tennis game.

This year Federer won the French open for the first time, beating Soldering, who won against the previous French Open champion, Raphael Nadal in the fourth round. He then shared the record with a few other tennis star players like Agassi and Graf to win all four grand slams. In this year’s Wimbledon tournament, he beat Andy Roddick in the final in the latest chapter of their long, though lopsided victory, regaining the World No. 1 spot from Rafael Nadal. The final score was 5–7, 7–6(6), 7–6(5), 3–6, 16–14. The match was also the longest men's singles final the fifth set alone lasted 95 minutes. As of now, Federer has won 6 times at the Wimbledon (2003-2007, 2009) , 5 times at the U.S. Open (2004-2008) , 3 times at the Australian Open (2004, 2006-2007) and once at the French Open (2009), setting a record of 15 Grand Slam wins, the most number of Grand Slam victories by a male tennis player. Even though Federer lost the US Open Final in September to Del Porto, a player eight years younger than him, being a fighter, he made sure he did his best in defending the title, carrying it to five sets with another close finish.

After a long season of tennis matches over the last few years, Federer is currently resting and spending more time with his newly born twins now and would do so for the next few months; however, he is bound to strike back next year in the Grand Slams. Federer has regained his World No.1 position (having previously held it for 237 weeks) after losing it for a period of time to Nadal. By winning 15 grand slam titles slam titles and reaching the final of 21 grand slam titles Federer has proven himself to be a men’s tennis playing legend of his time and for all time.

Written by Sennen Pinto
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