Roger Federer becomes the first player with 1000 weeks in top-50
The 17-year-old Roger Federer made a name for himself in 1998 and 1999, reaching the quarter-final on an ATP debut in Toulouse in 1998 and scoring 13 ATP triumphs a year later. After a stellar junior year that saw him conquering Wimbledon, Roger finished 1999 season in the top-70 following the title at Brest Challenger, making an even more significant progress a year later when 36 ATP wins secured the place in the top-30 for the upcoming Swiss, as the youngest player there with Lleyton Hewitt. After the semi-final run in Copenhagen on an indoor court in March 2000, Federer cracked the top-50 for the first time at the age of 18, struggling in the next couple of months (one win from seven matches before Roland Garros) and securing the place in that group again after advancing into the fourth round in Paris.
The form of the young Swiss was not that good in the next couple of events after Halle before showing his best tennis in Sydney, Vienna and Basel, earning enough points to crack the top-50 and cement his status of a top-50 player for the next 19 years! Climbing through the ranking with constant pace, Roger spent some time in the top-20 before the first Masters 1000 crown in Hamburg 2002 that sent him into the chosen ten, staying there almost all the time until the end of 2016 when he had to drop out after missing all the action since Wimbledon.
Since April 2001, no one has seen Roger outside the top-20 group and has been building on those weeks spent in the top-50, celebrating the incredible 1000th this Monday! Thus, Federer has become the first player with 1000 weeks in the top-50 (993 consecutive), leaving Andre Agassi on some 960 and Jimmy Connors on 918, as the only two players who reached at least 900. John McEnroe, Rafael Nadal and Ivan Lendl are further behind and the Spaniard is the main favorite to join at least 900 weeks in the top-50 in the spring of 2021 if he remains healthy.
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2x3sQ9N
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