Swiss superstar and roundly considered G.O.A.T of tennis Roger Federer completed yet another remarkable tennis record just recently, becoming the oldest ATP World No. 1 after claiming his 97th ATP title over Grigor Dimitrov in Rotterdam.
It’s just another claim-to-fame for 36-year-old Federer, the man who has achieved just about everything you could ever want (or need) in professional tennis.
As of 19/02/2018 Federer’s list of records includes:
- All-time record 20 Grand Slam singles titles.
- Reached a record 30 Grand Slam finals (10 consecutive, and another 8 consecutive – the two longest streaks in history).
- Reached a record 43 semi-final appearances, and 52 quarter-final appearances.
- One of eight men to have won a career Grand Slam (winning all four Grand Slams at least once) and one of four players to have won a career Grand Slam on three different surfaces, hard, grass and clay courts.
- All-time record 8 Wimbledon titles.
- The only male player to have reached 11 finals at a single Grand Slam event (Wimbledon).
- The only player to win three different Grand Slam tournaments at least 5 times (Australian Open, Wimbledon, and US Open) and is the only player to win two Grand Slams five consecutive times at Wimbledon from 2003–07 and the US Open from 2004–08.
- Spent a record 303 weeks as the No. 1 ranked player in the world (ranked No. 1 for 237 consecutive weeks), the most of any men’s tennis player since the inception of these rankings in 1973.
And there’s many, many, many, many more records here: Wikipedia: List of career achievements by Roger Federer
Federer’s latest accolade means he now holds the record for:
- Most weeks at No. 1 – 303* (2nd: Sampras – 286)
- Most consecutive weeks at No. 1 – 237 (2nd: Connors – 160)
- Oldest No. 1 – 36 years, 195 days* (2nd: Agassi – 33 years, 131 days)
- Longest time between becoming No. 1 for the first and last time – 14 years, 17 days (2nd: Nadal – 9 years, 3 days)
So with all that in mind, I present the history of ATP World No. 1 sorted by age (click for a full res version):