Great Tennis Players
Roger Federer Swiss junior champion at 14
Roger Federer is seen by many as one of the most dominant men’s tennis players in the history of the game since he won won his 3rd successive Wimbledon Championship. He is the current number one player on the men’s tour,
He succeeded in taking out 3 of the 4 Grand Slams in 2004.The U.S.Open, Wimbledon and and the Australian Open. At 24 years of age most experts believe that he is only just beginning his tennis dominance.
Roger Federer was the Swiss Junior tennis champion at the age of fourteen, and by sixteen, his last year on the Junior circuit, he became the ITF World Junior Tennis champion, in that year he also won the Wimbledon Juniors title. Shortly after turning eighteen he became the youngest player in history to make the ATP’s Top one hundred Ranking, a record he held until Richard Gasquet of France established a new one in 2003.
Federer showcased his ability when he halted Pete Sampras’ streak of thirty one consecutive wins at Wimbledon in 2001. He finished that year ranked thirteenth in the world, and had moved up to 6th place by 2002.
He was named ATP European Player of the Year, Swiss Sportsman of the Year, and received the Michael-Westphal Award in 2003, the same year he took out his 1st Wimbledon crown.
In February 2004, Federer was ranked number one by the ATP and also won his 2nd straight Wimbledon championship and being named European Player and Swiss Sportsman of the Year for the second time.
In 2005, he was named the Ambassador of the United Nations’ Year of Sport and Physical Education.
In July of that year he became only the third player, Pete Sampras and Bjorn Borg being the other two, to win three consecutive Wimbledon championships since 1936.
From a talent perspective he is not only the best overall ATP player, but the best in almost every other facet of the game: His ground-stroke ability is brilliant (his backhand is still a weakness, however). He can seemingly hit any kind of volley from almost anywhere on the court.
And his service game is one of the best also. I’ve seen some perfectly-formed tennis players in my lifetime, but I’ve never seen anyone who’s body is so perfectly built for the sport of tennis as as Federer’s. He is thin and agile, but very toned. Which makes for an awesome combination of quickness, speed, and power.