Age Is Just a Number for Roger Federer
Roger Federer wins the Rotterdam Open and confirms his ATP #1 ranking (Jan Kok/Soccrates/Getty Images)
This past week, Roger Federer showed us all that age is just a number. At the Rotterdam Open (ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament), he assured himself a return to the top of the ATP leaderboard by defeating Robin Haase in the quarter-finals. In typical Federer fashion, he went on to win the tournament by taking down Andreas Seppi and Grigor Dimitrov in the semis and final, respectively. With an official return to the ATP’s top spot on February 19, 2018, Federer has claimed several new records that many did not believe he could achieve. Among them include the following:
- At 36 years and 195 days old, he became the oldest ATP World #1 (Andre Agassi was the previous record holder at 33 years and 133 days)
- His 5 years and 106 days between ATP ranking leaderships is the largest such gap (he was last #1 in November of 2012)
- 14 years and 17 days is now the longest period between a first and latest ATP #1 ranking (February 2, 2004, was his first time)
- At the time of this writing, he has 303 total weeks in the top spot
While it can be easy to brush off Federer records because of his consistent brilliance, many in the tennis world have taken a moment to congratulate the man for what is truly a remarkable return to the top.
He was recognized by the ATP itself:
He got a little bit of love from the WTA:
One of the previous record holders reached out:
And even superstars of other sports chimed in:
With all the outpouring of support, the man himself had a classic response:
If the first month and a half of the 2018 season is any indication, we may be poised to witness another outstanding year by the world’s most dominant tennis player. Only time will tell, but all of us at Tennis Express will be paying close attention.
Check out our blog post where we commemorate Federer’s 20th Grand Slam win and talk shop on his special edition Nike gear!
