57 Fun Facts About Roger Federer

With whom did Federer win the 2001 Hopman Cup?

Martina Hingis was then the world No. 1 and the teenage Federer her junior partner; 17 years later he won the event again as the senior half of the team, with Belinda Bencic.

Whom did Federer beat in the 2005 US Open final?

Andre Agassi, 35, took a set off the defending champion before fading; it was the last Grand Slam final of his career, and he retired a year later.

Who beat Federer in his last singles match, at Wimbledon 2021?

Hubert Hurkacz won in straight sets and took the last one 6-0, the first set Federer had ever lost to love at Wimbledon.

At which Ivy League college did Federer give a 2024 commencement speech about winning only 54% of his points?

Dartmouth: he told graduates he had won almost 80% of his 1,526 singles matches but barely more than half the points, so even champions must learn to shrug off a lost one.

When Federer retired, only which man had more Open Era singles titles?

Jimmy Connors won 109. Federer finished six short after knee operations kept him to a handful of tournaments in his last three seasons.

Whom did Federer beat in the final to win his first Grand Slam title at Wimbledon in 2003?

Mark Philippoussis lost in straight sets, twelve months after Federer had been knocked out of the same tournament in the very first round.

Which four-time defending champion did the 19-year-old Federer beat at Wimbledon in 2001?

Pete Sampras had won 31 straight matches at Wimbledon; the five-set upset ended that run, and the two never played each other on tour again.

In which city did Federer win his first ATP singles title, in 2001?

Milan: he beat Julien Boutter there at 19, after losing both of the tour finals he had reached the year before.

Federer completed the career Grand Slam at the 2009 French Open by beating whom in the final?

Robin Söderling had stunned four-time champion Rafael Nadal in the fourth round, Nadal's first defeat at the French Open after 31 straight wins.

Whom did Federer beat 16-14 in the fifth set of the 2009 Wimbledon final to win a record 15th major?

Andy Roddick did not lose his serve once until the very last game, the 30th of the longest fifth set a major final had seen.

Which rival won 24 of his 40 career matches against Federer?

Rafael Nadal built the lead on clay, winning 14 of their 16 matches there, while Federer came out ahead on both grass and hard courts.

Who ended Federer's run of five straight US Open titles?

Juan Martín del Potro was 20 and twice trailed by a set in the final, but he won two tie-breaks and then ran away with the fifth set 6-2.

Whose run of five straight Wimbledon titles did Federer match in 2007?

Björn Borg won every year from 1976 to 1980, and his streak ended just as Federer's would: with defeat in the following year's final.

At which German grass-court tournament did Federer win a record ten singles titles?

Halle: it is played in June as a warm-up for Wimbledon, so he returned almost every summer and won it ten times between 2003 and 2019.

With which illness was Federer diagnosed in early 2008, sapping his fitness that season?

Mononucleosis: he may have carried it since December, and weeks before the diagnosis his run of ten straight Grand Slam finals ended in Melbourne.

Which Australian coached the young Federer at his Basel club and stayed his mentor after he turned professional?

Peter Carter died in a car crash in 2002, leaving Federer distraught for months; a year later he dedicated his first Wimbledon title to him.

Federer's charitable foundation, set up in 2003, mainly funds which cause for children in poverty?

Education: Federer set the foundation up in the year of his first Wimbledon title because he and his parents wanted to give something back.

Which stroke, used by all three of his boyhood tennis idols, did Federer adopt as a child?

A one-handed backhand: his first coach was a fan of the shot as well, so he learned it from the start and kept it for his whole career.

Who upset Federer in the singles quarter-finals at the 2008 Olympics?

James Blake had lost all eight of their earlier matches; Federer still left Beijing with a gold medal, won in the doubles days later.

From which country does Federer's mother Lynette come?

South Africa: citing that family tie, he began backing a South African children's charity in 2004 and flew out a year later to meet the children it helped.

Which German won the 1993 Swiss Indoors in Basel, where a 12-year-old Federer worked as a ball boy?

Michael Stich took the title that week; thirteen years later the former ball boy won his home tournament himself, the first of ten victories there.

Which sport did Federer give up at age 12 to focus solely on tennis?

Football: a junior at FC Concordia Basel, he chose tennis because he preferred a sport where winning or losing was down to him and not to teammates.

Which women's great did Federer face for the first time in a mixed doubles match at the 2019 Hopman Cup?

Serena Williams and Federer had spent nearly two decades at the top of tennis without ever sharing a court; he and his partner won, in front of a record crowd in Perth.

With whom did Federer win Olympic doubles gold at Beijing 2008?

Stan Wawrinka and Federer won the gold only days after Federer had been upset in the singles quarter-finals, rescuing his Games.

Who beat Federer in the 2012 Olympic singles final, denying him a career Golden Slam?

Andy Murray had lost the Wimbledon final to Federer on the same Centre Court only four weeks earlier.

Whom did Federer beat to clinch Switzerland's first Davis Cup title in 2014?

Richard Gasquet won only eight games, two days after Federer had himself been thrashed in straight sets by Gaël Monfils on the opening day.

Whom did Federer beat in the 2017 Wimbledon final to claim a record eighth title without dropping a set?

Marin Čilić had swept Federer aside in straight sets on his way to the 2014 US Open title, but here, hampered by foot blisters, he won just eight games.

In which city did Federer win his 100th ATP singles title in 2019?

Dubai: he beat Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final, weeks after the 20-year-old Greek had knocked him out of the Australian Open.

Who lost the 2004 Australian Open final to Federer?

Marat Safin had knocked out the defending champion on his way to the final; a day later Federer was world No. 1 for the first time, the start of a record 237 straight weeks.

Which rival beat Federer in all three of their Wimbledon finals?

Novak Djokovic was a point from defeat at 8-7, 40-15 in the fifth set in 2019, then won the match in a tie-break at 12-12, a rule brought in that very year.

What does the acronym SABR stand for in Federer's game?

Sneak Attack By Roger began as a joke: jet-lagged in a practice session before Cincinnati in 2015, he started rushing in on returns just to keep the points short.

Which coach did Federer credit for encouraging him to develop the SABR?

Severin Lüthi watched the trick keep working in practice, then asked why not use it in a match and urged Federer not to shy away from it on big points.

Which former champion joined Federer's coaching team in early 2014, prompting a more attacking game?

Stefan Edberg had been Federer's childhood hero; engaged for at least ten weeks of 2014, he stayed two full seasons and coaxed him forward to the net.

Which tennis great arranged the first lesson of Federer's future wife?

Martina Navratilova thought nine-year-old Mirka looked athletic, set up a lesson for her and later sent a racket; Mirka went on to reach the world's top 100.

Which racket brand made Federer's signature Pro Staff RF97 Autograph frame?

Wilson: he had long played a 90-square-inch head while nearly every rival swung a bigger, more powerful frame, so in 2014 he changed to a larger one to keep up.

Which British player beat Federer in the 2001 Wimbledon quarter-finals, a round after his upset of the defending champion?

Tim Henman's reward was a rain-hit semi-final that took three days to finish, which he lost to the eventual champion.

Which clothing company signed Federer to a reported $300 million deal after his Nike contract ended in 2018?

Uniqlo: the switch ended a Nike partnership dating back to 1994, yet he walked out at Wimbledon in his new kit still wearing Nike shoes.

Federer bought a stake in which Swiss running-shoe brand in 2019?

On: beyond putting money in, he helped design The Roger, a tennis-inspired everyday shoe that the company launched in 2020.

Where did Federer meet his future wife Mirka Vavrinec?

At the 2000 Sydney Olympics both were on the Swiss tennis team; Federer lost the bronze-medal match there, but left the Games with a partner for life.

Federer and Mirka have four children born in which combination?

Two sets of twins: twins run in the family, since his sister Diana has a pair too, and he pulled out of the 2014 Madrid Masters to be at the boys' birth.

What nickname did the US press give the Swiss star's all-black tuxedo-striped outfit at the 2007 US Open?

Darth Federer: the tournament joined in, playing The Imperial March from Star Wars as he walked on court for his matches.

In 2019 Federer became the first living person to be pictured on which official Swiss item?

A coin: Swissmint, which had never before put a living person on one, said no other Swiss was as well known around the world.

The 2008 Wimbledon final that Federer lost in five sets finished at 9:15 pm in what conditions?

Near darkness: rain had stopped play twice, and the retractable roof being built over Centre Court was not ready until the following year.

Which team competition, named after an Australian legend, did Federer help create?

The Laver Cup: Federer wanted tennis to have its own version of golf's Ryder Cup, so it sets a team from Europe against the rest of the world.

Federer's final match in 2022 was a doubles loss alongside Nadal against which pair?

Jack Sock and Frances Tiafoe trailed 9-8 in the deciding tie-break, then took the next three points to win it 11-9 and spoil the farewell.

In which city did Federer play the final match of his career, in September 2022?

London: he bowed out at the O2 Arena on the opening night, and his team then lost the event for the first time in its five editions.

Which business tycoon partnered Federer in doubles at a 2018 charity exhibition in San Jose?

Bill Gates and Federer won their set 6-3, with Federer playing one winning point from his knees after ending up on the ground.

Which writer compared Federer's forehand to a 'great liquid whip'?

David Foster Wallace knew the game from the inside: the novelist had been a regionally ranked junior player before he wrote about Federer for the New York Times.

What did Basel name after Federer in October 2021?

A tram: Federer inaugurated the Federer Express himself, calling it a great honour to have a tram of his own running through the streets of his home city.

Federer's 'tweener' brought him triple match point against Djokovic in the semifinal of which event?

2009 US Open: the between-the-legs winner came on the second-to-last point of the semi-final, yet he went on to lose a five-set final as defending champion.

Federer's parents both worked for which Basel company, whose private courts he first played on?

Ciba-Geigy: he first hit a ball on its courts at three and had outgrown the company club by eight, when his mother moved him to a stronger junior programme.

At 14 Federer left home for Switzerland's national tennis centre, where he had to learn which language?

French: the centre was then in French-speaking Ecublens, and by his own account his parents visited no more than three times in his two years there.

Federer lost his first ATP singles final, at Marseille in February 2000, to which fellow Swiss?

Marc Rosset won their first two meetings, both in 2000, before Federer won the next two and took over from him as Switzerland's leading player.

With whom did Federer win his only doubles Masters title, at Miami in 2003?

Max Mirnyi had been the beaten finalist when Federer won his only Challenger singles title in 1999; as partners they beat Leander Paes and David Rikl in Miami.

Federer's three major titles in 2004 made him the first man to win three in a season since whom?

Mats Wilander managed it in 1988; Federer did it again in 2006 and 2007, when only defeats in the final at Roland Garros kept him from winning all four.

Whom did Federer beat in the 2007 Australian Open final to win a major without dropping a set?

Fernando González had won both his quarter-final, against the second seed, and his semi-final in straight sets, yet could not take a set off Federer.

Which Croatian former world No. 3 joined Federer's coaching team for the 2016 season?

Ivan Ljubičić's first year was cut short in July when a knee injury ended Federer's 2016 season; with him, Federer came back to win three more majors in 2017 and 2018.