Roger Federer writes ultimate Grand Slam history as the first player..
Roger Federer had made Grand Slam debut 20 years ago at Roland Garros at the age of 17, losing to world no. 3 Patrick Rafter in four sets. Two decades later, the Swiss maestro is still alive and kickin', coming to Paris as the 3rd seed and one of the favorites for the title after Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Dominic Thiem. Federer claimed the first Major title at Wimbledon 2003 and he never looked back (especially in the next five or six years), conquering almost every significant record at the most prominent tennis stage and completing Career Grand Slam here in Paris ten years ago.
At the moment, Roger is the record-holder with 20 titles, 30 finals, 43 semi-finals and 53 quarter-finals at Slams, winning 344 matches from 399 Grand Slam encounters. This week, Federer took down Lorenzo Sonego and Oscar Otte, setting the third round clash with the young Norwegian Casper Ruud (he could have faced Casper's father Christian a few times at the beginning of his career) on Friday that would be Federer's 400 Grand Slam match! Thus, the Swiss would become the first player in the history of the game with that many clashes at Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open, adding another massive record to his tally that will not be beaten for many more years, especially if Novak Djokovic fails to reach that number.
By the end of 20002, Roger already embraced 40 Grand Slam matches and between 2004-2015 there was only one season without at least 22 encounters on the big stage, showing outstanding consistency at all four tournaments and standing as the only player with at least 80 matches in four temples of tennis. Federer contested 111 clashes at the Australian Open alone, adding 107 at Wimbledon and 98 at the US Open, looking to reach the 100-match mark in New York this September. Before the third-round match with Ruud, Roger currently stands on 84 tests in Paris, missing the clay Major for the last three years otherwise he could have been well above 90 there as well.
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2YYVlkF
No comments