Roger Federer counts to record-breaking 700 weeks in the Top 3
The 37-year-old Roger Federer has secured another season in the year-end Top 3 ranking as by far the oldest player who achieved that since the start of the ranking in 1973. This was the 14th year-end Top 3 season for the great Swiss and he is by far the oldest player in that group in the last 45 years and also the only to secure the name on the list after turning 34! Roger had been ranked in the Top 3 at the end of the season between 2003-2012 and he is among the four chosen players with 10 consecutive year-end Top 3 finishes besides Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lendl and Novak Djokovic.
In addition, Roger has spent nine full seasons in the Top 3 (2004-2010, 2012 and 2018) and it is impressive to see 2018 on that list, especially when we know he failed to do that for the past five years. Roger's first stint in the Top 3 was one of the most impressive ones in terms of Open era rankings, sitting firmly in that group between July 2003 when he won his first Wimbledon crown and October 2011 when Andy Murray passed him by 45 points to push Federer to fourth place after 432 weeks in the Top 3!
Six weeks later, Roger won the ATP Finals title to earn 1500 points and move ahead of Andy, ending his amazing streak of consecutive weeks in the Top 3 but returning there just in time to close another season in the elite group, starting another run that was on until Wimbledon 2013! Sergiy Stakhovsky stunned him in the second round at the All Englund Club that year and Roger was sidelined from the Top 3 for another year, joining that club for the third time after reaching the final of Wimbledon in 2014. It was another fine run from the Swiss, adding another 111 weeks in the Top 3 to his tally before dropping out in August 2016, skipping all the action after Wimbledon due to a knee injury and returning in glory in 2017.
He needed just seven tournaments to crack the Top 3 again last season, winning four big titles and becoming the second oldest player in the Top 3 after Ken Rosewall! 2018 saw another light calendar in Roger's schedule but that proved to be enough to keep him in the Top 3 during the entire season for the first time since 2012, defending his Australian Open crown and lifting four trophies overall to stay in front of Alexander Zverev and Juan Martin del Potro as his closest rivals. This week marks Roger's 73rd consecutive week in the Top 3 and also the milestone week number 700 in that group, standing far ahead of Jimmy Connors and other legends in another testimony of his everlasting and glorious career.
Connors, Nadal, Djokovic and Lendl are the only other players who have managed to spend 500 weeks in the Top 3 since 1973 but Roger is far above all of them and the only who has passed the 600-week mark. At the moment, Roger is just 35 points clear of Alexander Zverev and he will almost certainly lose the number 3 spot on January 28, having to defend 2000 points in Melbourne, and it will be interesting to see if he is capable of starting the fifth stint in the Top 3 at some point in 2019. Roger Federer's 700 weeks in the Top 3:
432 - (7.7.2003 - 16.10.2011) 84 - (28.11.2011 - 7.7.2013) 111 - (7.7.2014 - 21.8.2016) 73 - (17.7.2017 - 9.12.2018)
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2zItb3c
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