Federer Hits 900: Highlights of his ATP Tour Tenure
This Thursday, World Number 2 Roger Federer crossed a great milestone in his run as a professional tennis player. The Maestro completed the 900th match of his career by defeating American player Taylor Dent, moving his win-loss ratio to 727 victories
against 173 losses. This article glosses over some other interesting facts about the Swiss player’s 900 matches.
Roger Federer’s first victory was on the 28th of September, 1998. The player defeated World Number 45 Guillaume Raoux in Toulouse at a time when he himself was ranked Number 878. He had been defeated set-less in his two previous ATP matches;
however, he managed another victory before falling out at the Toulouse event, and pushed himself up 482 places on the rankings.
The first Top 10 opponent whom Federer played against was American tennis phenomenon, Andre Agassi. Federer lost the match in straight sets.
Federer first cracked the top 100 fourteenth months after he began playing on the ATP Tour. His rankings catapulted from Number 106 to Number 67 in two weeks, after he played in the quarter finals at Basel and the semis at Vienna.
In the same month, Federer seized his first tournament title on the Brest hard courts in France.
Federer’s first US Open was in 2000; he emerged as the victor in two rounds before falling to eventual World Number 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero.
His first appearance on the ATP’s top ten list was in 2001, after he won a match on clay at Hamburg. However, his debut appearance did not last long, and he fell out in the first round at the French Open.
Since the end of 2001, Federer has not yet fallen out of the World’s Top Ten players. He has been a constant fixture in the upper-tier since winning at Vienna.
Federer’s first Grand Slam was the 2003 Wimbledon Championship, He defeated World Number 6 Andy Roddick and Number 48 Mark Philippoussis to in the semi-final and final respectively to seize the tournament trophy.
The first time he became World Number 1 was in 2004, at the Australian Open. He knocked Andy Roddick off the Number 1 spot with his victory at the Major.
The first time Roger Federer was defeated by current World Number 1, Rafael Nadal, was in 2004 at the Miami Masters.
In 2004, the Maestro amassed 11 tournaments and 3 Grand Slams. In 2005, he won 14 tournaments with two of them as Grand Slams.
From June 2005 to March 2007, Federer made an appearance in every single tournament he participated in. He also held a winning streak of seven tournaments.
The lowest ranked player whom Federer lost to as World Number 1 was Number 101 Richard Gasquet in 2005.
The Swiss player suffered a very bad patch from October 2008 to May 2009. This lead to many questions about whether or not he would ever come back; this time span is also famous for Federer’s fit of tears after his loss to Nadal at the Australian Open.
However, he returned to form in May by winning three tournaments back-to-back. This year has been a comparative bust for Roger Federer, and he has dropped below World Number 2 for the first time since 2004.
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