Roger's Biggest Milestone

9 years ago a 21 year old boy from Switzerland hits the pinnacle of tennis world by winning the Wimbledon championship 2003. Many said that he is poised for greatness, but what followed was beyond anybody’s imagination. 36 slams have been played after his first Slam victory and he has won 16  of them, a staggering number if we look at the depth of the men’s field in modern day tennis.

And he is back here, in yet another Wimbledon final, his 8^th a tennis record. And look what he is chasing. Record 7 title that will tie him to legendary Pete Sampras. ATP world no. 1 that again will tie him again to Pete’s record of 286 weeks as world no 1. The second one he will surpass easily because of tennis calendar.

There have been numerous records that he has shattered, as his semifinal rival Novak said before their match “He has almost every record a tennis player can dream of”. But yet somehow he is still there fighting with his young rivals, hungry for more that is an incredible virtue in itself. 

He was down and out in 2008-09 when he lost Roland Garros and Wimbledon to Nadal and then the Australian in 2009. The way he cried at the presentation at Rod Laver arena in 2009  everybody thought he is over, his days are over, but the king roared back, winning his first Roland garros and then a record 15^th at Wimbledon. But things got nastier, now he has not only Nadal but also Novak who together have won last 9 grand slams. The younger guns were looking beyond reach when 2011 ended. They were both far away in terms of tennis ranking points.

I won’t talk about more numbers here, we all know how big they are, thousands of articles you will find on how he has dominated the tennis world. They all mean so much in terms of tennis. They mean so much to me. The 7^th Wimbledon and a record 286 weeks, these are numbers I want him to get so badly.

I don’t know much about this but I guess there won’t be any tournament in history where all the top 3 stood a chance to move to number one. Federer has been rewarded for playing some excellent consistent tennis to be able to reach this stage this year. Of all the records he has broken, of all the milestones he has reached, claiming the top spot from his younger rivals, after being dumped to no 3, would have been the biggest milestone Federer has ever achieved, at least for me.