The Swiss tennis player Roger Federer wants to end his outstanding career at the age of 41. The Laver Cup in London next week will be his last assignment on the ATP tour, he announced. The reason given by the long-standing world number one was physical complaints. “This is a bittersweet decision because I will miss everything the Tour has given me,” Federer wrote.
Born in Basel, he has won 20 Grand Slam titles and a total of 103 individual titles. He was Olympic doubles champion in Beijing in 2008 and won the Davis Cup with Switzerland in 2014.
The son of a Swiss father and a South African mother turned professional in 1998, celebrated his first tournament victory in Milan in 2001 and made his breakthrough in 2003 with the first of eight triumphs on the Wimbledon lawn. In the years that followed, Federer came close several times to become the second player to win all four Grand Slams in a calendar year, but he failed to beat Rafael Nadal on clay at the French Open. It was only when Nadal missed the final there in 2009 that Federer also prevailed in Paris.
Federer fought big duels with Nadal as well as later with Novak Djokovic and suffered bitter defeats, including in Wimbledon finals. In the course of his more than two-decade career, he reported back grandiosely several times after injuries or weaker years. In 2012 he climbed to the top of the world rankings again with the Wimbledon victory, in 2017 he beat Nadal in a memorable final at the Australian Open in Melbourne, where he also won the last of his 20 Grand Slam titles a year later. In 2019 he lost the Wimbledon final against Djokovic after missing match points, who replaced him as number one in the world.
Federer matures into a world athlete
The fans admired Federer for his aesthetic game, which sometimes made even the most difficult shots look amazingly easy. He was called a tennis maestro. In fact, there was a lot of strength and athleticism in his mostly offensive appearance on the pitch. Federer, who was sometimes heated when he was younger, grew with his sporting success into a world athlete, who was always modest, patient and also funny when dealing with fans and was able to speak fluent English and French.
With his wife Mirka, a former professional player from the Czech Republic, the two pairs of twin children and his companions, Federer traveled the world – albeit in moderation. Early on, he limited his program to important tournaments to give his body breaks. Now Federer is finally withdrawing from the wandering life as a tennis pro.