On this day: Roger Federer, 20, cracks top-10 for the first time
Roger Federer made the first significant steps on the professional Tour back in 1998, reaching the quarter-final at the ATP tournament in Toulouse to crack the top-400 at the age of 17. With some good results on the Satellite Tour, Roger finished the season just outside the top-300 and there was plenty more to come in 1999, with 13 ATP wins under his belt and a Challenger title in Brest, becoming the force to be reckoned with on the Tour. The super talented Swiss found the way to enter the top-30 already in 2000 after 36 wins and two finals, ready to make that final push and hit the top-10 charts sometime in 2001.
Federer claimed 49 triumphs that season and found himself in the top-15 already in June before missing all the action between Gstaad and the US Open, unable to earn more points and book place among the world's elite ten players. Nonetheless, Federer was closing the gap in the first half of 2002, losing in the final in Miami to Andre Agassi and conquering the first Masters 1000 title in Hamburg, earning 500 points and making a top-10 debut on May 20, still at the age of 20. The rest is pretty much history and after dropping out for 11 weeks Roger returned to the exclusive group in October following the title in Vienna, staying in the top-10 for 14 consecutive years or 734 weeks.
After 12 weeks Roger was back inside the top-10 in his full glory, winning the Australian Open 2017 and staying there ever since, counting to more than 860 weeks in the elite. Seventeen years after making a debut in the top-10, Roger is still one of the best players in the world together with Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic despite turning 38 in August, winning Miami and returning to clay after three years.
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2Ekjj24
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