Roger Federer counts to 950 consecutive weeks in the top-20!
In his first complete season on the ATP Tour, Roger Federer made rock-solid progress in 2000, staying in action for more than 30 weeks and collecting 36 wins and two ATP finals in Basel and Marseille. Moving from outside the top-60 to the top-30, the young Swiss was ready for an even stronger run in 2001, losing finals in Basel and Rotterdam but winning the first ATP crown in Milan. After that, Roger cracked the top-20 for the first time, returning there again in April and never leaving the elite group ever since, spending the mind-blowing 950 consecutive weeks in the elite group for an Open era record. Earning the place among 20 best players in the world is not easy and it is incredible to even think about spending more than 18 years there without a dark period or poor results that would kick you out.
Another tennis giant with an elongated career, Jimmy Connors spent 858 weeks in the top-20 without dropping out and there's Rafael Nadal in the third place with 744, joining the party four years after Roger and looking good to catch and pass the American in two years. Ivan Lendl, Boris Becker, Pete Sampras and Novak Djokovic are further in front, forging the group of seven players with at least 600 weeks without leaving the top-20. Going back to Federer, he had to wait until May 2002 to find himself in the top-10 for the first time and nothing could have stopped him since the spring of 2003, becoming a regular top-5 player and sitting on the ATP throne for the first time in February 2004 after winning the Australian Open.
The rest is pretty much history and Federer set some astonishing ranking records that will take some beating in the future, competing on a very high level for almost 20 years and still standing in the top-3 despite the fact he turns 38 in a couple of weeks. Roger opens the record-breaking 21st Wimbledon campaign against Lloyd Harris, motivated after a great run at Roland Garros and eager to keep himself among the best players in the world at least for another year.
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2RR3vcH
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