Roger Federer Tennis
Roger Federer is a name sure to become legendary in the tennis world. He has won four Tennis Master’s Cup titles, thirteen Grand Slam singles titles, fourteen ATP Masters Series titles and an Olympic Gold Medal, all by the age of 27! Federer has won 19 Grand Slam singles titles (a record which still stands), 10 of which were won consecutively between Wimbledon in 2005 and the US Open in 2007. Federer is currently ranked second in the world, having held the number one rank between February 2004 and August 2008; he was also the winner of the Laureus World Sportsman award for four consecutive years between 2004 and 2008.
Roger Federer was born in August 8, 1981 in Basel, Switzerland. He spent most of his childhood in Munchenstein, Switzerland near the French-German boarders with his parents- Swiss-German Robert Federer and South African Lynette Federer. He was raised as a Roman Catholic and was even given the honor of meeting Pope Benedict XVI while playing at the 2006 Internazionali BNL d’ Italia tournament held in Rome. Although Federer considers French-Germa as his native language, he can speak German, French and English fluently.
From very early on, Federer seemed destined for athletic success. At age nine he began tennis lessons and moved up to a private tutor by the following year. He was also an accomplished football and cricket player as a youth; Federer continues to play cricket in his spare time. Despite his skill in a number of different sports, it is tennis where Federer decided to make his career. While only fourteen, he won all of the national championships he was eligible to compete for and was invited to train at the Swiss National Tennis Center in Ecublems. In 1996, he would join the ITF Junior Tennis Circuit and turn professional by 1998. In 1998, he won the ITF Junior Tennis championship, the Orange Bowl and the Junior Wimbledon championship - impressive, even for Roger Federer.
Most tennis players are specialists who play their best on a particular type of court. However, Federer is well known for is performance on courts of all types. As one sportswriter said, you can be a clay court specialist, a hard court specialist or a grass court specialist - or you can be Roger Federer. Federer uses a hybrid semi-western and eastern grip and is best known for his powerful, precisely aimed groundstroke; although his volleys are also certainly something to behold.
In his career, Roger Federer has won a whopping 57 singles titles. He was named by Time magazine as one of the most influential people of the year 2007. Federer is engaged in charity work outside of his tennis career. He founded the Roger Foundation in 2003, to promote sports to young people and to help disadvantaged persons. At only 27 years old, we may have not yet seen the best of Roger Federer yet.
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