1 By Diana Olivarria Earlier Years Roger Federer

1 By: Diana Olivarria

Earlier Years Roger Federer was born on August 8 th, 1981 in Basel, Switzerland. Roger Federer first started Tennis as the age of eight. By the time Federer was ten, people were already talking about his “sweet touch” with the racket and his competitive attitude. 2

After Debuting Roger Federer turned pro in 1998, and knocked out reigning champion Pete Sampras in the fourth round at Wimbledon 2001. In 2003, Roger Federer won six tournaments including his first Grand Slam tournament by defeating Mark Philippoussis at Wimbledon. By 2004, Roger Federer was the number one ranked tennis player on the planet and won three of the four Grand Slam tournaments that year including Wimbledon, the US Open and the Australian Open. 3

Roger Federer’s ultimate rivals Rafael Nadal: Federer and Nadal have been playing each other since 2004 and their rivalry is a major part of both of their careers. Federer and Nadal held the top two rankings on the ATP Tour from July 2005 until 17 August 2009, when Nadal fell to world no. 3. Federer and Nadal are the only pair of men to have ever finish six consecutive calendar years at the top. Federer was ranked no. 1 for a record 4 and a half consecutive years while Nadal, held no. 2 for a record 3 consecutive years, before surpassing Federer in August 2008. 4

Roger Federer’s Ultimate Rivals continued Novak Djokovic: The Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic rivalry is the biggest rivalry in Grand Slam history with a record of 11 matches played against each other. Novak Djokovic is the only player besides Rafael Nadal to have defeated Federer in consecutive Grand Slam tournaments. Many experts have incorporated the rivalry between Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic as one of the best rivalries in the Tennis Open Era. 5

Roger Federer’s Equipment Federer currently plays with a customized Wilson Pro Staff 6. 1 90 BLX tennis racquet. Federer has a contract with Nike footwear and apparel. For the 2006 championships at Wimbledon, Nike designed a jacket emblazoned with a crest of three tennis racquets. The three racquets represent the Wimbledon Championships he had previously won, which was updated the next year with four racquets after he won the Championship in 2006. 6

Specific Information about his Racquet Roger Federer’s racquet is characterized by its smaller hitting area of 90 square inches, heavy strung weight of 364 grams, and thin beam of 17. 5 millimeters. His grip size is 4 3/8 inches. Federer strings his racquets at 21. 5 kg mains/20 kg crosses pre stretched 20%, utilizing Natural Gut 16 gauge for his main strings and Luxilon Big Banger ALU Power Rough 16 L gauge for his cross strings. 7 When asked about string tensions, Federer stated "this depends on how warm the days are and with what kind of balls I play and against who I play. So you can see – it depends on several factors and not just the surface; the feeling I have is most important. "

Roger Federer’s Competition Results 1998 -2013 Competition Results 90 80 70 60 50 Wins 40 Loses 30 20 10 0 Wins Loses 8 Singles 77 35 Doubles 8 5 Overall 85 40

Roger Federer’s Foundation Roger Federer started his own charitable foundation to assist in providing sports and education to children in South Africa. Visit the cite http: //www. rogerfedererfoundation. org/en/home/ The RFF focuses on sharing the responsibility of problem-solving with the local community. It teaches the children, their families and the entire community that must learn to participate in the analysis of needs, the development of innovative solutions as well as the proposal and implementation of measures in order to take over and maintain individual responsibility. 9

Roger Federer Fun Facts Roger Federer speaks 3 languages: English, French and German. In 2007, Roger Federer became the first living Swiss person to be featured on a Swiss stamp. 10

Websites: Work cited • http: //www. rogerfederer. com/en/tennis. html • http: //www. kidzworld. com/article/5243 -roger-federer-biography • http: //www. rogerfederer. com/en/rogers/foundation. html • http: //www. rogerfedererfoundation. org/en/home/ Pictures: http: //www. livetennisguide. com/2012/11/01/is-roger-federer-andnovak-djokovic-dominate-mens-singles-in-2012/ http: //www. rogerfedererfoundation. org/en/home/ http: //sportige. com/roger-federer-gallery/roger-federer-22/ http: //federermagic. blogspot. com/2005/02/young-federer-inpictures-oo-baby-blue. html 11 http: //www. 123 rf. com/photo_14755826_switzerland--circa-2007 stamp-printed-by-switzerland-shows-roger-federer-circa 2007. html