On 31 August, Roger Federer returned to Arthur Ashe Stadium for a moment that belonged to his history with New York. Two days earlier, in Newport, Rhode Island, he had been inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. Before the night-session crowd, fellow Hall of Famer Kim Clijsters placed the ring in his hand. The ovation came from a city that had watched him win five consecutive US Open titles, from 2004 through 2008, and had never forgotten the tennis that brought him there. Federer beat Lleyton Hewitt, Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray in those five consecutive U.S. Open Finals. No player has matched that consecutive run at the US Open in the Open Era. His winning streak in New York extended to 40 matches before Juan Martín del Potro stopped him in the 2009 final. In Newport, Federer had struggled to contain his emotion. “I’m still writing my love letter to tennis, and my time as a player is done,” he told the audience. “So this is not a goodbye.” He retired with 20 Grand Slam singles titles, 103 tour-level titles and 310 weeks at world No. 1. Those figures fill the record books. To the fortunate few who saw him play, they will always talk about how he moved. This writer included. Watching Federer play is summed up in one word: Mesmerizing.
BASEL Roger Federer was born in Basel on 8 August 1981, the second child of Robert, a Swiss, and Lynette, a South African. Growing up in Birsfelden, Riehen and Münchenstein, a typical Swiss boy fluent in Swiss German, English and French. Football as the national sport naturally competed with tennis for his attention until he was twelve, when he chose the racket. His early heroes were Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg, followed by Pete Sampras. At his Basel club, Australian coach Peter Carter helped shape his game and remained close to him until Carter’s death in 2002. In 1992 and 1993, Federer worked as a ball boy at the Swiss Indoors in Basel. At the 1993 final, he was twelve, fetching balls for Michael Stich and Stefan Edberg. He would eventually win his hometown tournament 10 times, returning to Jakobshalle each October to an arena where he had once stood at the side of the court.
THE MAKING OF A CHAMPION In 1998, Federer won the Wimbledon boys’ singles and doubles titles, then the Orange Bowl in Miami, finishing the year as the world’s No. 1 junior. That July, he made his professional debut at the Gstaad Open. He lost in straight sets. His rise continued steadily, by February 2001, he won his first ATP title in Milan. Five months later, ranked No. 15, he faced Pete Sampras at Wimbledon. Sampras had won the previous four championships and was unbeaten at the tournament in 31 matches. Federer won in five sets 7-6, 5-7, 6-4, 6-7, 7-5. Nobody, Federer included, knew how far he would go. He was not yet the composed figure audiences would come to know. After losing his temper during a match against Marat Safin in Rome in 2001, he resolved to master his emotions. It took time, but he learned to leave a missed shot or lost game behind him before the next point began. In July 2003, Federer defeated Mark Philippoussis to win Wimbledon. At 21, he had his first major title, on the grass where he would build his greatest record.
THE RECORDS Federer’s 8 Wimbledon singles titles on grass courts remain the men’s record. He won 6 Australian Opens, 5 US Opens both on hardcourts and 1 Roland-Garros, completing the career Grand Slam on the clay courts in Paris in 2009. He reached 31 major finals, including ten in succession from Wimbledon 2005 through the 2007 US Open. On 2 February 2004, Federer became world No. 1. He held the position continuously until 17 August 2008. His 237 consecutive weeks at the top remain the longest uninterrupted reign in the history of the ATP rankings. For four and a half years, every challenger in the sport tried and failed to dislodge him. Federer spent 310 weeks at No. 1 in total. Novak Djokovic later surpassed that figure, reaching 428 weeks across separate spells at the summit. In 2018, at 36, Federer returned to No. 1 and became, at the time, the oldest man to hold the ranking. By the time he retired, Roger had accumulated 103 tour-level singles titles and 1,251 match wins, with a career winning percentage of about 82 per cent. He won 65 consecutive matches on grass between Halle in 2003 and the 2008 Wimbledon final. From Wimbledon 2004 to Roland-Garros 2013, he reached 36 consecutive Grand Slam quarter-finals. At Dartmouth’s commencement in June 2024, Federer offered graduates a different perspective on winning “In the 1,526 singles matches I played in my career, I won almost 80% of those matches,” he told the graduates. “What percentage of points do you think I won in those matches? Only 54%.” Even the greatest player of his generation lost nearly half the points he played. He won by finding the ones that mattered.
THE RIVALS Federer’s career stretched from his professional debut at the Gstaad Open in 1998 to his farewell at the Laver Cup in London in 2022. He arrived as the era of Sampras and Agassi was drawing to a close and became one of the defining figures of the generation that followed. Rafael Nadal brought relentless intensity, heavy topspin and extraordinary defence, particularly on clay. Federer answered with precision, taking the ball early and changing the angle of a rally in an instant. Their matches became defining moments in modern tennis. Novak Djokovic presented a different challenge through his footwork tenacity, return of serve and defensive resilience. For nearly two decades, the three players pushed one another to extraordinary standards. The statistical comparisons are inevitable. Djokovic surpassed Federer’s titles record, while Nadal finished with more major singles titles. Federer’s distinction lay in the breadth of his game and the ease with which he could change the shape of a match.
THE STYLE Federer played right-handed, with a one-handed backhand that became one of the defining shots of modern tennis. His game was built around balance, anticipation and footwork that seemed to give him more time than his opponent and an inside-out forehand that rarely missed. He could dictate from the baseline, finish at the net or defend until an opening appeared. His forehand controlled rallies; his serve set up points with precision. He changed pace and direction without warning, taking the ball early or drawing an opponent wide before finding a corner. Federer did it all…and with the finesse that no other player before or after have displayed. The elegance was real, but so was the calculation beneath it. Federer knew when to apply pressure, when to wait and when to take a risk. He could turn defence into attack with one stroke, then finish with a volley that seemed almost effortless. Fluidity in motion.
FOR SWITZERLAND Federer became Switzerland’s most recognisable public figures (apart from the Matterhorn). At the Beijing Olympics in 2008, he won gold in men’s doubles alongside Stan Wawrinka. In London 2012, he took silver in singles. In 2014, Federer and Wawrinka led Switzerland to its first Davis Cup title, with Federer clinching the final against Richard Gasquet. In 2020, Swissmint issued a 20-franc silver commemorative coin bearing his portrait, making Federer the first living person honoured on a Swiss commemorative coin. He founded the Roger Federer Foundation in 2003. It supports early childhood and basic education in southern Africa and Switzerland. Generation of children looked up to Federer as their Icon, not just in Switzerland but across the globe.
FAMILY Federer met Mirka Vavrinec, a fellow member of the Swiss Olympic team, at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. They married in Riehen on 11 April 2009. They completed their family of four with twin daughters, Myla Rose and Charlene Riva followed by twin sons, Leo and Lenny. For much of his later career, the family travelled with him. Mirka, herself a professional player, remained a constant presence throughout the demands of the tour. In Newport, she introduced him at the Hall of Fame ceremony. THE GENTLEMAN Federer’s peers voted him the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award 13 times. Fans chose him as the ATP Fans’ Favourite for 19 consecutive years, from 2003 through 2021. His Hall of Fame speech included a lighter recollection: he had used more than 5,000 headbands during his career. And Switzerland had its own way of welcoming him home. At the Swiss Open in Gstaad, he received cows as prizes: Juliette in 2003, after his first Wimbledon title, and Désirée in 2013.
THE FAREWELL Federer’s final match came on 23 September 2022 at the Laver Cup in London. He played doubles alongside Nadal, the rival with whom he had shared some of the defining matches of his career. They lost to Frances Tiafoe and Jack Sock in a deciding match tiebreak, 4–6, 7–6(2), 11–9. Afterwards, the two men sat side by side and wept. The photograph travelled around the world. For years they had tried to beat each other; at the end, they held hands. At Rafa’s tennis academy in Manacor, Mallorca, a giant portrait sits in one of the cafeteria/lounge areas. No greater respect and friendship for two champions than between Federer and Nadal. Federer’s retirement closed his competitive career, not his connection to the sport. In Newport, he put it plainly: “Tennis became the fabric of my life.” His time as a player was over. His love letter to the game, he said, was still being written.
THE GREATEST PLAYER OF ALL TIME Others have since passed Federer’s 20 Grand Slam titles and his total weeks at No. 1. Nobody has touched his 237 consecutive weeks at the summit, maintained while the sport changed around him. The case for Federer as the greatest tennis player of all time goes beyond arithmetic. He could attack from the baseline, finish at the net, defend under pressure and turn a rally with a single shot. Few players have had so many options, and fewer still have made choosing between them look so easy. At Arthur Ashe Stadium, the Hall of Fame ring formalised a place in tennis history that the New York crowd had given him long ago. They remembered the five straight US Open titles, the forehand, the one-handed backhand and the movement that made the hardest work in tennis seem effortless. That is the Federer standard.