Roger Federer {Suisse Sportsman}

Roger Federer

Celebrations in House of Switzerland, Beijing: 2008 Olympic Gold Medal winners Roger Federer and Stanislav Wawrinka.
© swissworld.org
Roger Federer (born 8 August 1981) is the most famous and successful Swiss sportsman to date. He dominated men’s tennis for almost four and a half years, holding the number one spot for a total of 237 weeks. At the end of February 2007, Federer smashed the record set by Jimmy Connors back in 1977 of 160 weeks as world number one. However, on 18 August 2008 his longstanding on-court rival, Rafael Nadal, brought his reign at the top to an end.

Until the French Open Roger Federer had won each Grand Slam tournament at least once. He has dominated Wimbledon and the US Open like no other tennis player before him. In 2007 he won the men's single title at Wimbledon for the fifth successive year, only the third man in history to achieve this feat (Lawrence Doherty in 1906 and Bjorn Borg in 1980). In September 2008 Roger Federer was crowned "King of Queens", racking up his fifth consecutive US Open victory in Madison Square Gardens and equalling the record set in 1924.

2008 did not get off to a good start for Federer. Ill-health and an out-of-character losing streak seemed to undermine his confidence. Despite staging an amazing fightback in the epic 2008 Wimbeldon final, his defeat at the hands of Rafael Nadal was a particularly hard blow.

At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, it seemed that his losing streak was set to continue when he was knocked out of the singles tournament. However, all was not lost. On 16 August 2008, partnered by Stanislav Wawrinka, Federer regained his form and took gold in the doubles, realising his boyhood dream. The loss of his world number one ranking to Nadal two days later failed to dampen his spirits, as within a space of a few weeks, Federer was once again crowned US Open champion.

The summer of 2009 will go down as a truly historic moment in Federer’s career. Not only did he win his first French Open in June, but he also took back the Wimbledon crown the following month. Together, these brought his tally of Grand Slam victories to 15, beating the record previously set by Pete Sampras and cementing Federer’s reputation as the greatest player in the history of men’s tennis. The Swiss man has also reclaimed his No. 1 ATP ranking.

Awards and charitable work
•2008, 2007, 2006 and 2005: Winning the prestigious title of World Sportsman of the Year (Laureus World Sports Awards). He is the first person ever to have won this award four times.
•2007, 2006, 2004 and 2003: Named Swiss Sportsperson of the Year.
2007: The Swiss post office issues a stamp in his honour, the first time a living person has been commemorated in this way.
•April 2006: Appointed a goodwill ambassador for the global children's charity, Unicef.
•December 2003: Federer establishes the Roger Federer Foundation to support disadvantaged children and young people in South Africa, his mother's home country. The foundation works in partnership with the South African/Swiss aid agency IMBEWU.