Federer went from hot-tempered junior to tennis's most decorated good sport
As a boy Roger Federer struggled to control his temper on court. He remade himself so thoroughly that he collected a record 13 Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Awards and was voted fans' favourite 19 years running. Along the way he also won 20 major singles titles, eight of them at Wimbledon.
Born in Basel in 1981 to a Swiss father and a South African mother, he first swung a racket at three on the company courts where both parents worked. He played football, badminton and basketball too, and credited that variety for his hand-eye coordination, but at twelve he dropped football, preferring a sport where results depended on him alone. At eight he joined a Basel club and, inspired by idols such as Stefan Edberg, Boris Becker and later Pete Sampras, adopted the one-handed backhand.
The road was not smooth. At 14 he moved to the national training centre in French-speaking Écublens, spoke little French, felt singled out as the Swiss German, and often thought about quitting. He stayed, and in 1998 won the Wimbledon boys' singles and doubles, finishing the year as the world's top junior. He had once been a ball boy at his hometown tournament. In 2001, aged 19, he beat Sampras at Wimbledon, ending the champion's 31-match winning streak there.
His first major came at Wimbledon in 2003. From 2004 to 2009 he played in 20 of 24 major finals, and after three straight French Open final defeats to Rafael Nadal he finally won in Paris in 2009, completing the career Grand Slam. With Nadal, Novak Djokovic and later Andy Murray he defined a golden era of men's tennis, and he spent a record 237 consecutive weeks at number one.
Knee surgery sidelined him for half of 2016, yet he returned to win three more majors, including an eighth Wimbledon in 2017, and at 36 became the oldest number one at the time. He retired in September 2022 at the Laver Cup, a team event he helped create.
Source: Roger Federer
