Roger Federer

Roger is the greatest tennis player of all time.

29 years old (born 8th August 1981 in Basel, Switzerland), he is 6'1" tall and plays right handed with a one handed backhand.

Tournament wins by type:

No. 1 stats:

Career tournament history: (singles GS and ATP matches- not counting DC, doubles, Challengers etc.)

*NB
Australian Open pre-2008 was played on Rebound Ace, from 2008 onwards on Plexicushion.
2000 Olympics was in Sydney, on hardcourt. 2004 in Athens, on hardcourt. 2008 in Beijing, on hardcourt. 2012 will be at Wimbledon (grass). But noone cares about the Olympics lol.
The fifth Masters was played in Hamburg up until 2008 but in Madrid from 2009 onwards.
The sixth Masters (Canada) is held in Montreal in odd-numbered years, and in Toronto in even-numbered years.
The eighth Masters was held in Stuttgart from 1996-2001, Madrid from 2002-2008 and from 2009 onwards will be in Shanghai.
The ninth Masters (Paris) was played on carpet from 2000-2003. Hardcourt 2007-2008.
Masters Cup 2002 was played in Shanghai on Hard Courts. 2003-04 was played in Houston, on outdoor Hard Courts. 2005-08 it was played in Shanghai, on carpet (05) and Hard courts (06-08). In 2009 it is in London, on hardcourt.
Basel was played on hardcourt in 1998, carpet 1999-2006, hard 2007-2009

Tournaments and matches by year:

Red columns=tournaments played, both as a total (not counting DC ties shown in pink), and broken out by type.

tournament types listed here are:
IS/250: International Series (known as World Tour 250 from 2009 onwards)
ISG/500: International Series Gold (known as World Tour 500 from 2009 onwards)
MS/1000: Masters series (known as World Tour Masters 1000 from 2009 onwards)
MC: Masters Cup (known as World Tour Finals from 2009 onwards)
GS: Slams
Ol: Olympics

Blue columns=tournaments won (important ones only ie Slams, Masters Cup, Masters.)

* Match count and Win-Loss ratio is competitive ATP, DC, and GS matches only ie the tournament types mentioned above, plus Davis Cup. DC matches contribute to W-L ratio but do not give ranking points (up until the 2009 season, from which point they do give ranking points, if enough other tourmanents have been played).
Not included anywhere here are exhibition matches, which although sometimes fun, are meaningless. tough luck Pete!
Federer played some Challenger & Futures tour matches in 98-99, and Juniors matches before then. They're also not listed, because noone cares! Same goes for doubles matches :-)

Walkovers do not count as wins or contribute to matches played. Federer has enjoyed a walkover on 6 occasions: Thomas Enqvist 2002 Rotterdam R16, David Sanchez 2003 Gstaad QF, Andrei Pavel 2004 US Open 4th round, Tommy Haas 2007 Wimbledon 4th round, Tommy Haas 2008 Indian Wells QF, Kohlscreiber 2010 Cincinnati R16. Also Federer has himself withdrawn pre-match on 1 occasion: Paris Masters 2008 QF vs James Blake
Year end ranking points from 2009 onwards are using new ranking system (roughly double the points seen in previous years)

Career tournament & match wins by surface

NB Carpet is no longer used as a surface as of 2009. Stupid ATP.

Historic & career match wins by surface:

Slam match wins & titles:

Tournaments never won:

Match winning streaks:

Records: (in men's singles! some like to compare men and women and start ranting on about Steffi. They really need to give it a goddamn rest). the best ones are in red.

Slams:

• All time highest number of slams (16).
• Highest number of slam defences in the Open Era. (9: Aus Open x1, Wimbledon x4, US Open x4)
• Only player ever to win 3 different slams 3 times each (Aus Open, Wimbledon, US Open)
• Only Open Era player to win 3 slams in a row twice (Wimbledon 2005-Aus Open 2006, Wimbledon 2006-Aus Open 2007)
• Only player ever to win 3 slams in a calendar year three times. (2004, 2006, 2007)
• Only player ever to have back to back 3 slam years
• Most Slam matches won in a calendar year (27, in 2006). This is an Open Era record - 1 more match win than Laver in 1969 winning his Calendar year Grand Slam - since Laver only had to play 5 matches to win Aus Open.

Slam Finals:

• Highest number of slam final appearances in the Open Era (23. won 16)
• Only player to reach the final of all 4 slams 4 times
• Only player ever to reach the finals of all 4 slams in the same calendar year 3 different times (2006, 2007, 2009)

Slam Streaks:

• Only player ever to win 5 consecutive times in 2 slams (Wimbledon, US Open). Doing this at even 1 slam is incredibly rare. Surface giants Sampras and Nadal couldn't manage it. For Federer to achieve this at 2 different slams is outstanding.
• Only player ever to win both Wimbledon & US Open in 3 consecutive years. edit- now 4 consecutive years (2004-2007)
• Highest number of consecutive Wimbledon titles in the Open Era (5). (This record is a tie with Borg 1976-80). Renshaw has the Alltime record - 6 (1881-1886))
• Most consecutive US Open titles in the Open Era (5)
• Winner of his 1st 7 GS finals - ended by Nadal in 2006 Roland Garros final. This was also accomplished by Sears and Renshaw - but centuries ago so I'm like, whatever
• Only player ever to reach 7 consecutive Wimbledon finals (2003-2009)
• All-time highest number of consecutive GS final appearances: 10 (Wimbledon 2005- US Open 2007). Also 2nd highest (8 - Roland Garros '08 - Aus Open '10)
• Highest number of consecutive GS SF appearances in the Open Era: 23 (Wimbledon 2004 - Aus Open 2010). This is one of Federer's greatest achievements. No other player has come even remotely close to this sort of consistency. (2nd place is Lendl on 10)
• 1st player since Borg (1980 Roland Garros) to win a slam without dropping a set (Aus Open 2007). 1st to do so at Aus Open since Rosewall in 1972 - but Rosewall did not have to play 7 matches. This achievement has since been matched by Nadal at Roland Garros 2008. bah! ;-)

Titles:

• Most Open Era grass-court titles.
• Most Open Era hardcourt titles - I think!
• Only player in the open era to win 10 titles in 3 consecutive years. edit- now 11 titles in 3 consecutive years!

Masters:

• Winner of the most Masters Cup/World Tour Final titles (6)
• First player to win 4 Masters series titles in 1 season (closely followed by Nadal, but Shhh). Also Djokovic won 5 Masters titles in 2011- boo! Only player ever to win 4 Masters series titles in 2 consecutive seasons.
• Only player ever to win Indian Wells & Miami back to back in consecutive years.
• First player to reach the final in all 9 Masters series events.

Masters winning streaks:

• Longest unbeaten streak in the round robin stage of Masters Cup (5 years 2002-2006. ended in 2007 by Gonzalez).
• Longest winning streak in Masters Series matches (29) - ended by Nadal in Monte Carlo 2006

Rankings/prize money:

• Most consecutive weeks at #1 since rankings began in August 1973 (237 - over 4½ straight years!). On the face of it Sampras has better ranking stats (extra year-end #1), but then he routinely gave away the #1 spot to just about anybody- Muster, Rios, Moya, Kafelnikov, Rafter, Ben the dog, the list goes on and on. Federer held it with an iron grasp for over 4 years, consistently having a much higher ranking points total and a more comfortable lead than Sampras ever had. Those who claim Federer played in a soft era should crawl away and die.
• Highest ever number of ranking points at the end of the year (8370, 2006)
• Highest ever number of ranking points at any time of the year (8370, 20th November 2006)
• 1st player to win $8 million prize money in a single season (in 2006) (yeah yeah, inflation blah blah, Sampras, blether, whine - shut your face!)
• 1st player to win $10 million prize money in a single season (2007)

Tournament streaks:

• Most finals won in a row: 24 (Vienna 2003- Bangkok 2005) - eventually beaten by fatface Nalbandian at the Masters Cup. This is an Open Era record.

Match winning streaks:

• Longest Open Era hard court winning streak: 56 (Rotterdam 2005- Dubai 06) - beaten by Nadal
• Longest grass court winning streak: 65 (2003-2008) - streak ended by Nadal at Wimbledon 2008. Borg with 41 straight wins @ Wimbledon is also extremely impressive! (Fed's streak includes 40 straight wins at Wimbledon - the other 25 were at Halle. It's worth noting that Fed would have 41 straight Wimbledon wins, same as Borg, if not for that oaf Haas pulling out of their 2007 match)
• 40 straight wins at US Open - 2004-2009 (streak ended by Del Potro) - an Open Era record.
• Only player to win 40 straight matches at 2 different slams (Wimbledon 2003-2008, US Open 2004-2009)
• Longest winning streak against top 10 players: 26 (2003-05) - ended by Safin at the Aus. Open
• Only Open Era player (apart from Borg- maybe. links?) with 5 winning streaks of 20 or more matches:
  23 (Jun 2004-Aug 2004: W Halle, Wimbledon, Gstaad, Toronto. Lost in the 1st round of Cincinnati to Hrbaty).
  26 (Aug 2004-Jan 2005: W U.S. Open (1 w/o), Bangkok, Tennis Masters Cup, Doha. Lost in the Australian Open SF to Safin).
  25 (Feb 2005-Apr 2005: W Rotterdam, Dubai, Indian Wells AMS, Miami AMS. Lost in QF Monte Carlo to Gasquet).
  35 (Jun 2005-Nov 2005: W Halle, Wimbledon, Cincinnati AMS, U.S. Open, Davis Cup match, Bangkok. Lost in the Masters Cup Final to Nalbandian).
  41 (Aug 2006- Feb 2007: W U.S. Open, 2 Davis Cup matches, Tokyo, Madrid AMS, Basel, Masters Cup, Aus Open, Dubai. Lost in R64 Indian Wells to Canas)
• 41 match winning streak against US opponents (after losing to Roddick in 2003 Canada Masters SF. Last win was against Blake Aus Open 2008. Streak ended by Fish, Indian Wells 2008)
• Most match wins among active ATP players (since 26 October 2007 when he won his 544th match- beating Moya's 543)

Other:

• Best 3 year tournament and match winning percentages since rankings began. From 2004-2006 Federer was 247-15 (94.27%), and won 34 titles from 49 tournaments entered, including 8 GS wins from 12 entered.
• 200 consecutive weeks spent at #1. During this time Federer won 41 titles from 64 tournaments (ATP site says 65 but they're retarded), including 10 slams. He had a 308-24 (92.77%) record with only 3 players beating him more than once (Nadal, Nalbandian and Canas). This is by far the best #1 reign by any player.

The GOAT debate

Federer
The Greatest Of All Time is Federer, as I've said above. Simply holding the Alltime highest Slam count should be enough for this. If not then just look at the 5 consecutive Wimbledon/US Open titles, the 23 straight Slam SF appearances, the 10 straight Slam final appearances, the 237 straight weeks at #1, the 9 Slam defences, the hard court and grass court winning streaks (56 and 65 respectively). These are all crazy records which people are unlikely to replicate. Some might say that some of these eg SF appearance streak are not relevant when considering GOAThood, but they are wrong as these records in fact demonstrate Federer's incredible consistency and dominance over the ATP field.

Federer has no significant gaps in his resume since winning Roland Garros to complete the career Grand Slam. He's missing Olympic singles Gold, but historically in the tennis world the Olympics are not especially important. Although I suppose this may change, clearly medals at the 2012 event at Wimbledon will be highly desirable and may improve the overal prestige of the event. Having said that Federer does already have an Olympic Gold medal- clearly in tennis Doubles events are almost worthless compared to Singles, but in the Olympics world they are equal. Federer has also failed to win the Davis Cup but DC is a team event so it's not his fault that he was born in a small country with few top players - I'm sure if he was born in America or Spain ;-) that he would have won this.

Some say the losing head to head vs Nadal is a significant weakness for Federer, but consider that Nadal is almost 5 years Federer's junior- in tennis terms that's almost half a generation (cv Federer and Sampras who were born 10 years apart- noone would dispute that they belong to different tennis generations). And clearly Nadal is a great champion in his own right, so Nadal winning the majority of their matches should be the expected state of affairs. It's not clear to me how Federer losing regularly to Nadal in the late stages of events is somehow worse than eg Sampras losing regularly in the early rounds to a variety of journeymen. And this Nadal Federer head to head argument is especially flawed since it suggests that Federer's resume would actually be improved if he lost earlier in events thus avoiding Nadal - clearly madness (eg consider French Open, Federer lost 5 times at SF/F stage to Nadal, if instead he lost in the QF/SF stage to 5 different players would this somehow be preferable? It's not making sense to me. In some ways it's unfortunate for Federer that he was good enough to reach the final of all those clay events to face Nadal, but Nadal wasn't consistently good enough on hard court to get to Federer. Because of that their head to head record is somewhat distorted, and certainly should not be used as the main criterion for determining which of them is greater.
Anyway it's not like he's never beaten Nadal, he's had some nice wins over him at Masters Cup, and also beaten him on clay. Could say that Federer's wins over Nadal at Wimbledon were before Nadal peaked on the surface, but could just as equally argue that Nadal's win was after Federer began to decline.

Borg:
At this stage he doesn't really enter into the debate. Clearly his record was incredible, but he just didn't win enough Slams. And he ran off crying when the competition got tough. Also one of his big claims to fame, the French Open/Wimbledon double has been repeated by Nadal and Federer so is not particularly impressive these days.

Sampras:
Had 6 main records when he retired (in order of importance for contribution towards GOAThood)- most Slams, most Wimbledons, most weeks @ #1, most times year end #1, most Masters Cup titles (tied), most Open-Era grass court titles. Now that Federer has surpassed 3 of these, all Sampras has left is his Wimbledons and #1 stats. Most likely he will keep the weeks @1 and year-end #1 records, but these are not particularly relevant since Federer's consecutive weeks at #1 record more that makes up for Sampras' extra 1 week at #1. 7 Wimbledons is nice and makes him Wimbledon GOAT, but doesn't make up for Federer's 2 extra slams. Also Sampras has the gaping French Open-sized hole in his resume. It's not so much that he never won in but that he never came even remotely close to doing so. 1 solitary SF appearance where he was hammered by Kafelnikov, and embarrassing early round exits against nobodies in most other years. Also has a fairly mediocre Masters series trophy haul for a GOAT candidate.

Nadal:
Argually Nadal is already the claycourt GOAT (certainly will be with one more French Open which would move him past Borg). Also career Grand Slam is nice, and he has achievements that Federer lacks ie Olympic singles Gold, DC. A large part of the argument for Nadal being GOAT is his winning head to head against Federer, which is admittedly impressive. But, GOAThood should surely be decided by titles and performance vs the field, not just head to head against one player. Also, if this argument counts against Federer, it counts doubly so against Nadal, who has been beaten like a drum by Djokovic in 2011 season. This is not good for Nadal's legacy as Nadal/Djokovic are much closer tennis contemporaries (in years if not in milage) than Nadal/Federer. And Federer at his peak never lost 6 times in a row to anyone. Nadal needs to start winning some of these matches. These losses have been on all surfaces, and looked like routine wins for Djokovic- he didn't look remotely challenged. However it seems clear that Nadal cannot beat peak Djokovic, his only hope is that Djokovic's level dips or he gets injured. We shall see what happens in 2012 (and in WTF!)
Also I wish Nadal would stop cheating during matches ie time wasting between serves, illegal coaching from the stands, and strategic injury timeouts. He's an incredible athlete but not a good role model in my opinion.
Nadal also has significant resume weaknesses which prevent him from even being considered for GOAThood by any sane person currently:

1. 10 < 16. He's going to need at least 6 more slams, ideally 7. Also needs more quality slam titles in the mix ie Wimbledon, US Open.
2. Currently has no non-clay title defences. Title defences are so important in sport- look at Federer with his 5 straight Wimbledon/US Open titles- far more impressive than winning the odd title here and there when you get lucky draws ;-)
3. No World Tour final/Masters Cup wins. OK it's clear that Nadal hates playing on indoor hard, and tends to run out of steam towards the end of a season, but he needs to win probably several of these to be considered alongside Federer/Sampras

Laver:
The only player with a calendar year Grand Slam, but consider that 3 out of 4 Slams in those days were played on grass, also Australian Open was only 5 rounds not 7. Still, it's a phenomenal achievement, but with 11 Slams total, it's just not enough to consider him the GOAT over Federer with his 5 additional Slams. Some say that Laver would have won a lot more Slams if the Open Era had existed for his whole career but really that's just unfortunate for him- can only look at what he actually did win.

Current playing activity:

next match:
next scheduled tournament: World Tour Finals, London, 20 Nov

Current ranking points: 8170 as at Mon 14^th November. (Rank: 4. Djokovic @ #1 has 13860)
Ranking points gathered this calendar year (in 'orrible green): 6670. Points to defend for the rest of the year: 1500
Rankings come out every Monday, and for the previous 52 weeks, take points from up to 19 events: 12 mandatory events (4 Slams, 8 Masters), Masters Cup, and the 6 best other tournaments (including non-mandatory Monte Carlo Masters).
Ranking system changed in the 2009 season (points for each tournament roughly doubled). Previously the maximum possible number of ranking points was 10600. Now it's something like 20000. Not sure, who cares.

Ranking points breakdown:

still to achieve:

• highest number of Wimbledons (7- Sampras/Renshaw)
• total weeks at #1 (286 - Sampras)
• number of times year end #1 (6 - Sampras)
• Olympic singles Gold

DC title for Switzerland ;-)

Federer has participated in 20 DC ties:

1999 - 2 events: 1st round vs Italy, QF vs Belgium
2000 - 2 events: 1st round vs Australia, WG playoff vs Belarus.
2001 - 2 events: WG 1st round vs USA, WG QF vs France
2002 - 2 events: WG 1st round vs Russia, WG QF vs Morocco
2003 - 3 events: WG 1st round vs Netherlands, WG QF vs France, WG SF vs Australia
2004 - 2 events: WG 1st round vs Romania, WG QF vs France
2005 - 1 event: WG playoff vs Britain
2006 - 1 event: WG playoff vs Serbia
2007 - 1 event:WG playoff vs Czech Republic
2008 - 1 event: WG playoff vs Belgium
2009 - 1 event: WG playoff vs Italy
2011 - 2 events: Group 1 2nd round vs Portugal, WG playoff vs Australia

Doubles (section under construction- well, not really. I see doubles as a bit of an irrelevance. Sorry, Martina ;-) Still, Gold is gold!)

Career W-L: 114-75

Career titles: 8

Most notable achievements:

Olympic Gold medal, Beijing 2008 (with Wawrinka)