He is currently the No. 1 player in the world (and has been since February 2004) and (as of 11 June 2006) holds the third-longest consecutive stay in the Men's World No. 1 ranking. Only Ivan Lendl and Jimmy Connors have had longer unbroken streaks at number one.

In 2004, Federer became the first man since Mats Wilander in 1988 to win three out of four Grand Slam events in the same year. Between 2003 and 2006, he has won 7 Grand Slam singles titles. He is one of the greatest players of all time.

Federer was born in Basel, Switzerland in the small city of Binningen, to Robert Federer and Lynette Federer. He grew up 10 minutes from Basel proper, in suburban M�nchenstein.

His parents met while his father was on a business trip to South Africa for a Basel-based chemical company for which they both worked. Lynette was born and raised in Kempton Park, Gauteng, South Africa. Lynette no longer works at the company and is now a manager at the Roger Federer Foundation. Robert is still with the Ciba Specialty Chemicals, in sales.

Roger has an elder sister, Diana, who is a nurse, and lives in the Basel area. He speaks three languages (German, French and English) fluently and conducts press conferences in all of them.

Federer spends his off-court time playing card games, table tennis, other sports and sitting on the beach. He currently resides in Oberwil, Switzerland, and is dating former WTA player and fellow Swiss Miroslava Vavrinec (Mirka), who retired from the game in 2002 after a foot injury; the two met at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

He co-established the Roger Federer Foundation in December 2003. Its goals include funding projects that benefit disadvantaged children, primarily in South Africa. In January 2005, he encouraged efforts from tennis players for the people affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, saying he would play as many matches as possible in tournaments organized to raise funds for the tsunami victims and auctioned off his autographed rackets to raise funds for UNICEF's relief operations.

Federer also launched a fragrance and cosmetics line called RF Cosmetics in October 2003.

On April 3, 2006, Federer was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador to UNICEF [1], which helps poor children around the world.

Roger Federer started playing tennis at the age of eight. 1998 was Federer's last year in the Junior circuits; he won the Wimbledon Juniors title and the prestigious year-ending Orange Bowl. Federer joined the ATP tour in July 1998 but finished the year as the ITF World Junior Tennis champion. In 1999, he debuted for the Swiss Davis Cup team. He finished the year as the youngest player inside the ATP's top 100.

In 2000, he reached the semi-finals in the Sydney Olympics, but lost the bronze-medal match. He lost to Arnaud Di Pasquale of France by 7-6(7-5) 6-7(7-9) 6-3. He also reached the finals in Basel and Marseille but did not win either of them.

In February 2001, Federer won his first ATP tournament in Milan. He also won three matches for his country in the Davis Cup in a 3-2 victory over the United States. He advanced to the quarterfinals in the fourth round. He finished the year ranked 13th.

In 2002, Federer reached his first ATP Masters Series final at the Miami Masters, where he lost to Andre Agassi. He won his next AMS final in Hamburg, adding his first AMS title to the Medibank International title he had won earlier in the year. He also won both his Davis Cup singles matches against former world number ones (Russians Marat Safin and Yevgeny Kafelnikov), and by reaching No. 6 in the ATP Champions Race qualified for the first time in the year-ending Tennis Masters Cup where he lost in the semi-finals against Lleyton Hewitt. His year, however, was marked by early-round exits at the French Open, Wimbledon (where he lost to Mario Ancic, who is the last man to beat Federer on grass), and U.S. Open. He also lost his long-time Australian coach Peter Carter in a car crash in August.

Federer started 2003 by winning 2 tournaments in a row in Dubai and Marseille. He won in Munich without losing a set but exited the French Open again in the first round. On July 6, 2003, he defeated Mark Philippoussis and won his first Grand Slam title at the Wimbledon Championships, becoming the first Swiss man to do so; he dropped only one set during the entire tournament. He also won four Davis Cup matches during the year to lead Switzerland to the semi-finals of the World Group. He finished 2003 by winning the Tennis Masters Cup at Houston and ranking second in the ATP tour race. In December he parted ways with Peter Lundgren, his coach of four years.

In 2004, Federer had arguably one of the best years in the open era of modern men's tennis, winning three out of four Grand Slam tournaments: he won his first Australian Open title by defeating Marat Safin in straight sets, defended his Wimbledon title by defeating Andy Roddick, and won his first U.S. Open title by defeating Lleyton Hewitt. He finished the year by taking the Tennis Masters Cup at Houston for a second consecutive year. His win-loss record for the year was 74-6 with 11 titles. Federer's remarkable year was recognised when he was named Laureus World Sportsman of the Year in early 2005, edging out the likes of Michael Schumacher, Valentino Rossi, Lance Armstrong and Michael Phelps. He also was named "Player of The Year" by Tennis Magazine.

Throughout 2004 Federer did not have a coach, relying instead on his fitness trainer Pierre Paganini, physiotherapist Pavel Kovac, and a management team composed of his parents, his girlfriend Mirka (also his manager), and a few friends. For 2005, Federer arranged for former Australian tennis player Tony Roche to coach him on a limited basis.

Roger Federer at Wimbledon 2005.Federer reached the 2005 Australian Open semi-final before falling to Marat Safin in a five-set night match that lasted more than four hours passing midnight in the 4th set. Federer rebounded to win the year's first two TMS titles: Indian Wells (by defeating Lleyton Hewitt of Australia), and Miami (by defeating Rafael Nadal of Spain). He won his third Hamburg Masters clay court title in May by defeating Richard Gasquet, who he had earlier lost to in Monte Carlo. He then entered the French Open as one of the favorites, losing in the semifinals in four sets to Rafael Nadal. Federer defended his Wimbledon title for the third consecutive year by defeating Andy Roddick in a rematch of the previous year's final. Federer also defeated Roddick at the Cincinnati Masters to take his fourth ATP Masters Series title of the year (and sweep all the American AMS events) and become the first player in ATP Masters history to win four titles in one season. He also became the first Swiss male champion in Cincinnati's 107-year history.

Federer dropped only two sets on his way to a defense of his U.S. Open title against Andre Agassi: he won in four sets. He failed to defend his Tennis Masters Cup title, however, losing to David Nalbandian of Argentina in a 4 1/2 hour, 5 set match.

In January 2006, Federer won the Australian Open by defeating Cypriot sensation Marcos Baghdatis. This win marked Federer's third win in as many consecutive Grand Slam tournaments. In March, he defended his titles at the Indian Wells and Miami Masters to become the first player ever to win the Indian Wells-Miami double in consecutive years.

At the French Open in 2006, Federer chased the only Grand Slam he had not yet won as he returned to the clay courts of Roland Garros. He entered the tournament with the top seed and the goal of winning not only a career Grand Slam, but also to be the first man since Rod Laver to hold all four Grand Slam titles at the same time, although he would have done so in a two-year schedule. He made it farther than he ever had before by reaching the final but fell to defending champion, Rafael Nadal, in four sets. Although the title eluded him, he accomplished the feat of becoming one of two active players one tour who reached the finals of all four Grand Slams, the other being Andre Agassi.

In 2006, Federer's win-loss record currently stands at 49-4, all four losses coming against Spaniard Rafael Nadal.

Already, Federer has become the first man in the Open Era to win Wimbledon and the US Open back-to-back in consecutive years (2004 and 2005). He also has won three straight Wimbledon titles (2003-05), an achievement also completed by Bjorn Borg (1976-80) and Pete Sampras (1993-95; 1997-2000) in the Open Era. Federer is also one of only two active players to have reached the finals of each Grand Slam tournament, Andre Agassi being the other player who has accomplished that feat.

Federer is expected by many (including Rod Laver, John McEnroe, and Boris Becker; see quotes) to become one of the game's all time greats.

See ATP Player Activity: Roger Federer for the scorelines to all his matches.