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Roger Federer Profile |
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Birth Date:
August 8, 1981
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Birth Place:
Basel, Switzerland
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Birth
Name:
Roger Federer
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Height: 6'1"
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Biography |
Roger Federer was born in Basel, Switzerland, to Robert and
Lynette Federer. He grew up 10 minutes from Basel proper, in
suburban Münchenstein.
His parents met while his father was on a business trip to
South Africa for a Basel-based chemical company for which
they both worked. Ciba Specialty Chemicals was spun out from
the pharmaceutical company Ciba-Geigy, in January 1997, when
Ciba merged with Sandoz to form the pharmaceutical giant
Novartis, in late 1996. Lynette was born and raised in
Kempton Park, Gauteng, South Africa. Lynette no longer works
at the company, but is a manager at the Roger Federer
Foundation. Robert is still with the Ciba Specialty
Chemicals, in sales.
Roger has an elder sister, Diana, who is a nurse, and lives
in the Basel area. He speaks three languages (German, French
and English) fluently and conducts press conferences in all
of them.
Federer spends his off-court time playing cards, cricket,
ping pong, other sports and sitting on the beach, currently
resides in Oberwil, Switzerland, and is dating former WTA
player and fellow Swiss Miroslava Vavrinec (Mirka), who
retired from the game in 2002 after a foot injury. The two
met at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
He co-established the Roger Federer Foundation in December
2003. Its goals include funding projects that benefit
disadvantaged children, primarily in South Africa. In
January 2005, he encouraged efforts from tennis players for
the Tsunami-affected people, saying he would play as many
matches as possible in tournaments organized to raise funds
for the Tsunami victims and auctioned off his autographed
rackets to raise funds for UNICEF's relief operations.
Federer also launched a fragrance and cosmetics line called
RF Cosmetics in October of 2003.
Roger Federer started playing tennis at the age of eight. He
spent hours playing softball tennis on the street or hitting
tennis balls against the wall in the local club. He also
practised football and was undecided about which sport he
liked better until he turned twelve, when he chose tennis as
the sport to focus on. At the age of fourteen, he became the
Swiss Junior champion for all age groups and subsequently
relocated to the Swiss National Tennis Center in the
French-speaking part of Switzerland for more focused
training. The training continued until he finished school at
the age of sixteen and began playing more international
junior tournaments.
1998 was Federer's last year in the Junior circuits; he won
the Wimbledon Juniors title and the prestigious year-ending
Orange Bowl. He finished the year as the ITF World Junior
Tennis champion. Earlier in July, 1998, he had joined the
ATP tour.
In 1999, he debuted for the Swiss Davis Cup team. He
finished the year as the youngest player inside the ATP's
top 100.
In 2000, he reached the semi-finals in the Sydney Olympics,
but lost the bronze-medal match. He lost to Arnaud Di
Pasquale of France by 7-6(7-5) 6-7(7-9) 6-3. He also reached
the finals in Basel and Marseille but did not win either of
them.
In February, 2001, Federer won his first ATP tournament in
Milan. He also won 3 matches for his country in the Davis
Cup in a 3-2 victory over the United States. He advanced to
the quarterfinals at both the French Open and Wimbledon. En
route to the quarterfinals at Wimbledon, he defeated
defending champion Pete Sampras in the fourth round. This
match marked the emergence of Federer as a prominent player
on the tour. He finished the year ranked 13th.
In 2002, Federer started with a tournament victory at
Sydney. In February, he won both his Davis Cup singles
against former world number ones, Russians Marat Safin and
Yevgeny Kafelnikov. He reached his first Masters Series
final in Miami, only to be beaten by Andre Agassi. In May,
he got a second opportunity to win his first Masters Series
tournament in Hamburg, which he did, defeating Marat Safin
in the final. However, he subsequently lost in the 1st round
at both the French Open and Wimbledon. He also lost his
long-time Australian coach Peter Carter in a car crash in
August and subsequently performed poorly at the U.S. Open.
Later in the year he earned 6th place in the ATP Race and
qualified for the first time in the prestigious year-ending
Tennis Masters Cup, where he lost in the semi-finals against
the then-top tennis player Lleyton Hewitt in three sets.
Federer started 2003 by winning 2 tournaments in a row in
Dubai and Marseille. He won in Munich without losing a set
but fell out of the French Open again in the first round,
this time against Luis Horna. On July 6, 2003, he became the
first Swiss man to win the Wimbledon championship, defeating
Australia's Mark Philippoussis in the final while dropping
only one set during the entire tournament. He also won four
Davis Cup matches during the year to lead Switzerland to the
semi-finals. He finished 2003 by winning the Tennis Masters
Cup at Houston and ranking second in the ATP tour race. In
December he parted ways with Peter Lundgren, his coach for
four years.
In 2004, Federer had what has been arguably one of the best
years in modern men's tennis, winning three of the four
Grand Slam titles. He began by winning the Australian Open
for the first time, defeating Marat Safin. In May, he won
the Hamburg Masters on clay by beating Guillermo Coria. He
then defended his Wimbledon crown, overcoming Andy Roddick
in a rain-affected final. Federer also won the Gstaad
tournament on clay and the Toronto Masters Series. In
September, he defeated Lleyton Hewitt 6-0,7-6(3), 6-0 in a
one-sided final at the US Open for the year's third Grand
Slam. He finished the year by taking the Tennis Masters Cup
at Houston for the second time in a row. His overall record
for the year was a win-loss record of 74-6 and 11 tournament
wins. Federer's remarkable year was recognised when he was
named Laureus World Sportsman of the Year in early 2005,
edging out the likes of Michael Schumacher, Valentino Rossi,
Lance Armstrong and Michael Phelps.
Throughout 2004 Federer did not have a coach, relying
instead on his fitness trainer, Pierre Paganini,
physiotherapist Pavel Kovac, and a management team composed
of his parents, his girlfriend, Mirka, and a few friends.
For 2005, Federer arranged for former Australian tennis
player Tony Roche to coach him on a limited basis.
To begin 2005, he won his first title at the Qatar
ExxonMobil Open in Doha, Qatar. Next was his defeat in the
Australian Open semi-final by Marat Safin in a five-set
match that lasted more than four hours. Federer went on to
win his next four tournaments, including Dubai, Rotterdam
(both as in Doha game, by defeating Ivan Ljubicic of
Croatia) and the year's first two ATP Masters Series titles
at Indian Wells (by defeating Lleyton Hewitt of Australia)
and Miami (by defeating Rafael Nadal of Spain). He lost to
Richard Gasquet of France in ATP Masters Series in Monte
Carlo, but he won his third Hamburg Masters clay court title
in May by defeating Richard Gasquet, and entered the French
Open as one of the favorites. He lost at the semi-final
stage in four sets to Rafael Nadal. Federer went on to
defend his grass court title at Halle by defeating Marat
Safin of Russia. Federer won the Wimbledon Championship for
the third successive year by defeating Andy Roddick of the
United States. At that Wimbledon final, Federer struck 49
winners and only 12 unforced errors.
He dropped only two sets on his way to the US Open final,
where he defeated Andre Agassi in four sets for back to back
titles.
Federer is expected by many (including Rod Laver, John
McEnroe, and his childhood idol Boris Becker; see quotes) to
go on and become one of the game's all time greats.
Already, Roger has become the first man in the Open Era to
win Wimbledon and the US Open back-to-back in consecutive
years (2004 and 2005). He also has won three straight
Wimbledon titles (2003-05), an achievement also completed by
Bjorn Borg (1976-80) and Pete Sampras (1993-95; 1997-2000)
in the Open Era. |
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Other
Information |
Two days after winning his first Wimbledon, he was presented
with a 1,760 lb. milking cow he named "Juliette" as a gift
from tournament organizers in Gstaad, Switzerland.
In July 2003, he launched his own fragrance called "RF-RogerFederer."
Girlfriend is Mirka Vavrinec, former WTA player. She also is
his publicist, and their plan is to make Roger more
well-known in America.
Tennis idols growing up were Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg.
First Swiss man to win a Grand Slam singles title
Mom, Lynette, is from South Africa.
He won his second US Open in 2005. It was his sixth Grand
Slam tournament won |
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