Ten facts about Roger Federer on his birthday, featuring cows, cricket and Roxette

Tennis Features
Roger Federer eating cake

Roger Federer turns 37 today and we celebrate by giving you 10 interesting facts about the 20-time Grand Slam winner.  Oh, we have a bonus fact at the bottom that you will definitely enjoy.

1. Roger Federer ALWAYS finishes matches he starts
This year marks 20 years of Federer on the ATP Tour yet he has never retired during a singles match.

He has played nearly 1,500 matches and he has finished every one of them.

Roger Federer celebrates
Roger Federer celebrates

2. Records, facts and figures
Federer holds the world’s highest number of Guinness World Records within one discipline, a total of 29, which include 25 performance based records.

He has spent the most number of weeks at No 1 (310), most consecutive weeks at No 1 (237), has won the most Grand Slam singles titles (20), played the longest Olympic tennis match and, wait for it, has most playable real-life characters in a tennis videogame.

He has won 98 ATP Tour singles title and eight doubles titles.

He has two Olympic medals to his name (one doubles gold with Stan Wawrinka and one singles silver).

We could go on, but we’ll be here forever.

3. Highest-earning tennis player
He remains the highest-earning tennis player on the Forbes sports rich list as he earned a total of $77.2m, which puts him seventh in the overall standings for 2018.

In terms of ATP Tour career prize money, he is the all-time leader with $116,974,122.

Novak Djokovic is not too far behind on $114,136,035 while Rafael Nadal sits third with $101,306,550.

4. Roger Federer and his beloved Juliette and Desirée
When he won his maiden Wimbledon title in 2003, he was gifted a cow by the fine folks in Gstaad.

The cow was named Juliette and she later had a calf who was christened Edelweiss.

When asked about Juliette in 2012, he replied: “She’s not around anymore. You’re living in the past. She’s long gone.”

In July 2013 the Swiss Maestro received another cow, this time one called Desirée, during the opening ceremony of the Swiss Open in Gstaad again.

Just look how happy they both were.

5. Roger Federer the cricket fan
He once got caught in the middle of the India-Pakistan rivalry. He was pictured holding the shirt of the India ODI cricket team in 2015 as part of a marketing campaign for Nike.

Naturally the Pakistan fans were upset, but Federer was quick to apologise and declare his allegiance to South Africa.

“It was more of a Nike thing to be quite honest,” he said. “It was a Nike campaign they had because I met some of the Indian players and I had just spent some time in India so they presented the shirt to me.

“I support South Africa, and everybody knows that. The idea wasn’t to spark any fire and I’m sorry if it did that.”

And if you wonder why he supports South Africa, his mother was born there.

6. He’s into DJs
As someone who was born in the 80s, Federer was a big fan of Queen, Michael Jackson and Roxette during his youth.

Just for you Roger.

However, he told ATPWorldTour.com earlier in 2018 that he “likes DJs”.

“I came through the time in the 90’s where I listened to a lot of DJ music. Then, later on, it was all the DJ’s coming up and then it was rock, through Peter Lundgren, my coach, who did all the AC/DC and Metallica and all that stuff. Now I just go with the flow.”

7. It’s a twin thing
You probably know already that Federer and his wife Mirka are proud parents of two sets of twins. Myla and Charlene were born in 2009 and Leo and Lenny in 2014.

However, he is also an uncle to twins as his sister Diana has a set of twins.

8. Stamps and streets
In 2007 he became the first living person to feature on a Swiss stamp when the Swiss Post issued special one-franc stamp to celebrate his career.

Then in 2012 the city Halle, which hosts the Gerry Weber Open, paid tribute to him by naming a road leading to the stadium after him.

Federer was a five-time winner in Halle at the time and they decided the best way to honour him was to rename Weststrasse street Roger Federer Allee.

And then in 2016 Biel, Switzerland, followed suit. Allee Roger Federer leads to the Swiss Tennis Academy, where he trained as a junior.

9. He does get snubbed every now and then
Of course he is adored in his hometown of Basel, but politicians did snub him earlier this year.

There were plans to rename the St. Jakobshalle venue as well as a street after him, but the £750,000 bill had authorities worried and politicians voted against it.

We are sure the city of Basel will honour him appropriately once he retires.

10. Goodwill Roger
He is a brand ambassador for the United Nations Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF) and in 2003 he started the Roger Federer Foundation to help children in South Africa.

The Foundation spread its wings to Botswana, Malawai, Namibia, Switzerland, Zambia and Zimbabwe, and it has helped nearly one million children in these countries.

You can also get involved by visiting rogerfedererfoundation.org.

The Roger Federer Foundation also hosts Match for Africa exhibition matches every year to raise funds and the likes of Bill Gates, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray have all featured in the past.

Bonus:
Federer is typed entirely with your left hand. Actually, you only need your forefinger and middle finger to type Federer… go on check for yourself now.

Roger Federer

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