23 years ago Roger Federer broke into the ATP ranking

On 1997 September 22nd, and so 23 years ago, Roger Federer entered into the ATP rankings for the first time. The Swiss did it by winning eight games in a Swiss tournament, earning his first 12 points and entered the ranking at position 803.

At the time Federer participated in an ITF tournaments; thanks to the semifinal reached in the first event, to which he was granted access by a wild card, and to the eight overall victories over the four weeks, Federer earned the first 12 points useful to enter his name in the official rankings.

In the last 23 years the Swiss has made history, starting from the first season ended at no. 704 while in 1998 it was already among the top 400 in the world. On 8 February 1999 he entered the top 200 for the first time and seven months later, on 20 September 1999, in the top 100.

Federer from '97 to today

Roger continued to win and he entered the top 30, top 20 and top 10 were respectively in 2000, 2001 and 2002. The start of the 2003 season brought with it the fifth place in the world rankings while the conquest of the world number one came after the victory at the Australian Open 2004, on 2 February.

The Swiss then found himself at the top of the rankings for longer than anyone else in the history of tennis, 310 weeks, even if now Djokovic seems capable of overtaking: for the Serbian it would be enough to maintain the top until March 8, 2021 to succeed.

There are other records that Federer is almost certain to keep for a long time: at 39 he is still in the top 5 (he is number 4 in the world), the oldest after Ken Rosewall, while he holds the solo record of number 1 older, by virtue of the exploit in Rotterdam in February 2018 at 36 years and 6 months.

Roger Federer helds many important records: in the Slam Race, Federer leads with 20 Majors, ahead of Rafael Nadal with 19, then Novak Djokovic, with 17. Federer helds also the ATP Finals record, with 6 titles. With 8 Wimbledon titles, Roger is the most titles player of the historical London Slam, thanks to the 2017 wins over Marin Cilic.

Roger Federer skipped the second half of the 2020 season due to a two knee surgeries. After the semifinal of the Australian Open lost against Djokovic and the Match for Africa 6 with Rafael Nadal, the Swiss was in in hometown during the lockdown due to Covid-19 pandemic. After the cancelation of Wimbledon and Tokyo Olympics, he decided to go under the second surgery in order ti come back for the Australian Open 2021. So Federer is now traininig in order ti get Melbourne in the best shape, maybe trying ti do what he did at the Australian Open 2017, where he won his 17th Slam despite he was 6 month without playing.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2FKvTvA