The boy from Basel who broke rackets in fits of temper grew into the most watched player of his age, and he did it by making the hardest sport look like the easiest thing in the world. Roger Federer moved as if the court had been swept clean for him, a fluid one-handed backhand and early, unhurried ball-striking that turned power into geometry. He won 20 Grand Slam singles titles and 103 career titles, and eight Wimbledons, the most any man has claimed on that lawn. For 237 straight weeks he held No. 1, a run no one has matched, part of 310 weeks in all.
His story needed rivals to be fully told, and it had two of the greatest: the topspin fury of Rafael Nadal and the elastic resistance of Novak Djokovic. When knee surgery stole most of his 2016, few expected another act, yet he returned in 2017 to take the Australian Open past Nadal and a farewell-worthy eighth Wimbledon. He stayed five more years, then chose the perfect exit: September 2022, the Laver Cup, one last match played in tears alongside Nadal.
Four. That is how many men are left at Wimbledon, and no two of them arrived the same way. A favourite carrying the weight of the tag, a 39-year-old chasing one more, a wildcard chasing a fairytale, and a first-time major champion arriving as one. One draw, four separate stories.
Wimbledon notebook106. That is how many singles matches Novak Djokovic has now won at Wimbledon, one more than Roger Federer’s 105, the record he tied in the previous round and passed today by beating the qualifier Roman Safiullin 7-6(6) 6-3 3-6 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals.
Match tale