Roger Federer

Roger Federer is hailed as the best ever tennis player of all time and he has the credentials for it. He is world number one for 233 consecutive weeks. Not only that, he has already won a total of 12 Grand Slam Titles. He has 3 Australian Opens, 4 US Opens and 5 Wimbledon titles. Not only that, he has also racked four Tennis Masters Cups and 14 ATP Masters Series titles. He also holds the record of appearing in 10 consecutive Grand Slam finals which started from the 2005 Wimbledon Championships up to the 2007 US Open. He has been named as Laureus World Sportsman of the Year for four years in a row.

He began the 2007 with his 3rd straight Australian Open title. It is also his tenth Grand Slam singles title that he won without dropping any set. His streak of 41 straight matches is broken by Guillermo Canas in the second round of the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells. Guillermo Canas repeated his domination of Federer in the fourth round of the Sony Ericsson Open. During this tournament, he was awarded four ATP awards. This is the first time that a player received four awards in a single year. He started the clay court season by reaching the finals of the Monte Carlo Masters, only to be thwarted by Rafael Nadal. He only reached the third round of the Internazionali d’Italia. This is his longest he has gone without a title since becoming World Number 1.

He broke his losing skid by beating Nadal for the first time in clay at the Hamburg Masters. This ended Nadal’s 81 games winning streak on the clay courts. Nadal avenged this defeat in the French Open by beating Federer in the finals. They met again in the Wimbledon finals but this time Federer won over Nadal. Federer then won the Cincinnati Masters to grab his 50th career title. Then he went on and grabbed the 2007 US Open title. He has also won the US Open Series Points race. He competed in the Tennis Masters Cup and won it despite losing his first round robin match. He played an exhibition match in Seoul against Pete Sampras in which he won.

He welcomed 2008 with a defeat in the semifinals of the Australian Open. This ended his record of consecutive Grand Slam finals appearances to 10, though his record of 15 straight semifinals appearances is still intact. This was followed by a lost in the first round of the Dubai Tennis Championships. In March he was diagnosed with mononucleosis but his doctors have cleared to compete. At the first Tennis Masters Series event, the Pacific Life Open, he was ousted in the semifinals. He also lost in the quarterfinals of the Sony Ericsson Open to Andy Roddick. His first win of the year came from the Estoril Open. This is his first tournament under a new coach, Jose Higueras. In the Monte Carlo Masters, he lost to Nadal in the finals. Then in the Internazionali d’Italia, he was beaten by Radek Stepanek in the quarterfinals. He met Nadal again in the finals of the Masters Series Hamburg and lost once again. At the French Open, Nadal defeated him in straight sets in the finals. He broke his losing streak by winning the Gerry Weber Open. This is only his second title of the year. At Wimbledon, Nadal beat Federer after an epic 4hours and 48 minutes of play.