Champion and still raring to go

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35 year old Roger Federer wins the 19th Grand Slam of his carreer on Sunday, 16.7.2017 at the Wimbledon and became the Wimbledon’s oldest men’s winner surpassing Arthur Ashe, who was 32 when he won in 1976. The Swiss maestro registered a straight 6-3, 6-1, 6-4 win over Marin Cilic from Croatia in front of the packed Wimbledon crowd. Roger Federer has come a long way from a racquet smashing enfant with bad attitude to a respected sporting role model and modern icon. Federer won his first Grand Slam title at Wimbledon fourteen years ago and he clinched an historic eighth All England Club Trophy and 19th major on Sunday. His on court earning have brought him more than USD 100 million in prize money and now 93 career titles. Roger Federer is the father of two sets of twins, Myla Rose and Charlene Riva and Leo and Lenny with wife Mirka, who herself was a tennis player he met at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.

As a young player Federer was talented but was notorious for his on-court tantrums and temper and many thought that his progress into the big league was in doubt. Federer took his time to get his act together on court and to behave properly. Federer defeated Pete Sampras at Wimbledon in 2001 famously but was knocked out in the first round itself in the following year. A personal tragedy for Federer helped him press the reset button; he lost his coach and close friend Peter Carter who were killed in a car crash in South Africa. Federer was only 21 then. This tragedy was a turning point in his life and he committed himself to winning in style and gracefully. Federer was born on August 8, 1981 to Swiss father Robert and South African mother Lynette and started playing tennis at the age of eight. He won the first ATP title in Milan in 2001 and has never looked back after that, except in the year 2016 when he closed his season after a semi-final loss at Wimbledon. After the first win of Australian Open in 2004 he claimed the world number one rank and he has been at the top of the pile for 302 weeks.

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