If someone who had never seen a tennis match happened upon Roger Federer knocking the ball around, it would look like the easiest sport in the world. The mild-mannered Swiss champion hops around the court like a playful gazelle, laying waste to unsuspecting veterans while barely breaking a sweat.
Federer was born on August 8, 1981 in Basel, Switzerland, and grew up in suburban Münchenstein. He started playing tennis when he was eight years old, and by the late 90s was a world-renowned junior player, finishing 1998 as the International Tennis Federation (ITF) World Junior Tennis champion. The next few years saw Federer quietly enhance his game as he competed professionally, narrowly losing the bronze medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and picking up several singles titles.
2003 saw Federer win his first Grand Slam title at Wimbledon, defeating Australian Mark Philippoussis. The victory was a harbinger of things to come, as Federer began cleaning up at tournaments around the globe and reached the world’s Number One ranking in February 2004, which he still holds. The unstoppable 25 year-old has the top ranking clinched for the rest of 2006, and will soon break number-one streak records held by Jimmy Connors and Ivan Lendl. Federer is also one of the few players in history to win three of four Grand Slam titles in a single year, a feat he achieved in both 2004 and 2006. His recent win at the 2006 U.S. Open over American Andy Roddick made him the first player in history to win Wimbledon and the U.S. Open three years in a row during the same period. Federer currently holds a whopping nine Grand Slam titles, and will likely pass Pete Sampras’s all-time record of 14 Slam titles within the next few years.
Barring major injuries or the ascension of a player strong enough to consistently challenge him, Federer will likely become the greatest male tennis player in the sport’s long history. He also boasts one of the most generous and likable personalities in the game, and started the Roger Federer Foundation in late 2003, which provides massive funding for anti-poverty programs and AIDS research in Africa. In April 2006, he became a Goodwill Ambassador to UNICEF and, always the stylist, owns his own beauty line, RF Cosmetics.