Mens Tennis Forums banner

There is no finish line...

78K views 418 replies 58 participants last post by  Apophis 
#1 · (Edited)
Throughout his career Federer has attained numerous records – some of which are very well documented and publicised, others which perhaps are not. But often the question is asked: what more is there left to achieve? For sure there are many tennis records out there, a good number of them would be almost impossible for Federer to beat. But there are also numerous records that can still be equalled and/or broken.

So in this thread – which happens to be my first ;) – I have listed in no particular order, some of the records he has yet to achieve but may yet plausibly attain. They all refer to achievements in singles during the Open Era unless specified otherwise. Of course I have also included what he needs to do to achieve them and will try to update this on a regular basis (your help would be much appreciated with this too).

Note that there are numerous records which Federer has equalled but has not yet surpassed. Depending upon the response I get from this thread, I might include these in the post as well.

I’d just like to add that if Federer does not achieve many (or indeed any) of the records listed below, that does not in any way detract from his achievements thus far. For me at least, his place in tennis history is already sealed, although new chapters of this history are being added as time passes and that perhaps one day it is only reasonable to imagine that a number of Federer’s own records may be caught up to. But for now let us look forward to what there is still to aim for because as Roger states himself:



Update in progress... (stats to be correct correct to Monday 22nd June 2015, week prior to the start of Wimbledon)
Click for selected achievements since the previous update


PS: I am aware that there are more potential records which he can target, which I will add on in due course. In the meantime please let me know if there is anything I have missed out or if there are any important ones which you think should be included here.
Please also let be know if you spot any errors. Thanks :)
 
See less See more
1
#249 ·
Nice way of phrasing it Litotes :) Still weird that he won only 3 matches in a Slam, first time since Kuerten beat him in 2004 FO, over 8 years ago.
Hopefully he picks it up again and can still get that YE#1, but it'll be difficult if Djokovic wins the US Open.
 
#251 ·
also streak of winning 20 or more matches at slams
He already owned this record at 8. Now he owns two records one for slam wins and one for slam advancement.
 
#252 ·
With todays DC win, Fed has 15 match wins on clay this season. He only need 15 indoor wins to have at least 15 on all surfaces - 15 on grass and 27 on outdoor HC. As he already has 4 indoor HC wins from Rotterdam it looks quite possible indeed. I do not think this has ever been done before.
 
#253 ·
That would be a new record. The previous record was Jimmy Connors with 14 Grass wins and 17 Clay wins, in 1975.

But, he still has to get 11 more wins.
 
#254 ·
his list tracks those players who remain active since Roger's slam participation streak began in AO 2000 - 12 years ago. With Juanqui's retirement, this brings the active total to just 5 players out of the original draw of 128 players who remain active with ranking points.

Tommy Haas is the highest ranked player! He will be the oldest player on this list as well.

Dupuis keeps his RP with R32 points at the Shanghai Challenger. Stays alive for another year. :D
Sirianni has another 3 months.

Tommy Haas - STILL ACTIVE - (21)
Lleyton Hewitt - STILL ACTIVE - (101)
Michael Llodra - STILL ACTIVE - (110)

Noam Okun - STILL ACTIVE - (1069) [May 28th, 2013] (6 RP)
Antony Dupuis - STILL ACTIVE - (1284) [September 9th, 2013] (3 RP)

Joseph Sirianni (NR) STILL ACTIVE [November 7th, 2012] 0 RP
George Bastl (NR) STILL ACTIVE [September 4th, 2013] 0 RP

Juan Carlos Ferrero - RETIRED - (45)
 
#256 ·
In an effort to keep this thread alive...

Is it clinched that Federer will surpass Lendl in weeks in the top 5? Fed has 502 and Lendl has 524 according to Litotes. That would put him second behind Connors (705)

Also is it clinched that Fed will surpass Lendl in consecutive weeks in the top 5? Fed has 501 and Lendl has 524. That would also put him second behind Connors
 
#257 ·
No, neither is clinched just yet. To surpass 524 weeks Federer will need to be #5 until March 18th and March 25th. At that stage, his points up to and including Indian Wells 2012 will have dropped, leaving him - if he should take no more - with 6085 points. As you can see, this is good enough for top-5 at the moment. So it is likely he has secured enough weeks - but not definite.

And the 524 weeks in themselves are not necessarily right. Other sources give 588 weeks. 524 is a guaranteed minimum, in which 1980 and 1981 is not counted. It seems likely from results that Lendl should have been top-5 in much of this period, certainly in 1981, where he made 10 titles from 15 finals in 21 tournaments played - including one (lost) slam final. Compare this to the official 1981 #4 Vilas, who made 3 titles from 9 finals and did not proceed past the 4th round in any slam that year. But Lendl officially ended 1981 6th (same as 1980), for some unexplained reason.
 
#264 ·
March is going to be an important month for Federer! He has a chance to earn three records:

21 weeks shy of passing Lendl in total weeks top 3. (End of March 2013)
19 weeks shy of passing Lendl in total weeks top 5. (End of March 2013)
20 weeks shy of passing Lendl in consecutive weeks top 5 (End of March 2013)
 
#268 ·
If Fed finishes in the top 2 he will become the sole record holder of years in the top 2 in the open era. Currently he is tied with Connors at 8 according to points (even though some discredit the points methodology in the early years of Connors).

It is not in the bag though! If Murray wins through against the other two, and Fed looses against the other two, it will be quite risky for Fed

If he ends at top 3 we will have a different interesting stat, first time in eons that Fedal is missing from the top 2!!! "The end of an era"...
 
#269 ·
Saw this in a post on tennis warehouse - thought it was an interesting stat and that JediFed might like to check it out:

If Federer can win 6 more matches this year, he will have won 70 matches in the year that he turned 31.

To put this in perspective, below is the number of matches won by the following players in the year they turned 31.

Connors (1983) 52-11 (worth noting that he went 74-14 the next year)
Agassi (2001) 46-15
Sampras (2002) 27-17
Lendl (1991) 55-18
McEnroe (1990) 33-15
 
#272 ·
Federer has a chance to tie a little-mentioned record if he wins Basel. 30 match wins in a row on indoor HC. Here we only count indoor HC, not indoor carpet, which of course was the most prevalent indoor surface for a long time. The current unofficial list goes like this:

1) Ivan Lendl 30 (Basel 1980 (5), Stuttgart 1981 (5), Basel 1981 (5), Vienna 1981 (5), Cologne 1981 (5), GER/TCH DC 1981 (2), TCH/PAR DC 1983 (1), Sydney 1983 (2) - lost in QF)
2) Roger Federer 28 (WFT 2010 (5), SUI/POR DC 2011 (1), Basel 2011 (5), Paris 2011 (5), WTF 2011 (5), Rotterdam 2012 (4), Basel 2012 (3 so far)
3) Jimmy Connors 24 (Sydney 1977 (5), Sydney 1978 (5), Tulsa 1979 (5), Rotterdam 1981 (5), Stockholm 1981 (4) - lost SF)
4) John McEnroe 23 (Stockholm 1978 (6), Stockholm 1979 (6), Sydney 1980 (5), Sydney 1981 (5), Brussels 1982 (1) - lost QF)
4) McEnroe 23 (USA/AUS DC 1983 (2), Sydney 1982 (5), Sydney 1983 (5), Stockholm 1984 (5), Stockholm 1985 (5), Memphis 1987 (1) - lost R16)

If anyone can think of another player with a 20+ stretch of indoor HC wins, let me know :)
 
#275 ·
Yes, that one is guaranteed! Well done, Roger :) Can he make it an even ten next year? I won't bet against him :)

Next record on the horizon rankingwise is most weeks in the top-2. Lendl has 409. Roger will have his 402th week beginning 31/12-12. So he only needs to maintain top-2 until the end of February to take this.
 
#277 ·
This list tracks those players who remain active since Roger's slam participation streak began in AO 2000 - 13 years ago. With Sirianni's retirement, this brings the active total to just 6 players out of the original draw of 128 players who remain active over the last year of tennis. 95.4 percent of the draw has now officially retired.

Tommy Haas is the highest ranked player! Two players from the Guga generation remain: Antony Dupuis, and George Bastl. Dupuis is 39. Bastl is 37.

Tommy Haas - STILL ACTIVE - (21)
Michael Llodra - STILL ACTIVE - (53)
Lleyton Hewitt - STILL ACTIVE - (83)

Noam Okun - STILL ACTIVE - (1089) [May 28th, 2013] (6 RP)
Antony Dupuis - STILL ACTIVE - (1286) [September 9th, 2013] (3 RP)

George Bastl (NR) STILL ACTIVE [September 4th, 2013] 0 RP
 
#281 ·
35 straight wins by appearances in the 3R of a slam - currently owned by Lendl. He can tie this tomorrow, and surpass it by reaching the 4R in RG.

He can also surpass Lendl's record of 40 straight first round victories by appearances at Wimbledon, and tie Ferreira's consecutive slam appearances at 56 if he stays healthy through the USO. He can pass Vilas for most wins at RG this year as well, and move up the list for the US and at Wimbledon.

After those, the only ones that are left are pretty much all of Connor's records, time spent both total and consecutive in the top 4, top 5, top 10, total wins, total wins on Grass, GS wins on Grass, GS wins on Clay, total titles.
 
#282 ·
35 straight wins by appearances in the 3R of a slam - currently owned by Lendl. He can tie this tomorrow, and surpass it by reaching the 4R in RG.

He can also surpass Lendl's record of 40 straight first round victories by appearances at Wimbledon, and tie Ferreira's consecutive slam appearances at 56 if he stays healthy through the USO. He can pass Vilas for most wins at RG this year as well, and move up the list for the US and at Wimbledon.

After those, the only ones that are left are pretty much all of Connor's records, time spent both total and consecutive in the top 4, top 5, top 10, total wins, total wins on Grass, GS wins on Grass, GS wins on Clay, total titles.
Pretty sure Connors' doesn't have that one. Guillermo Vilas has 75, ahead of Borg 63, then Connors 59 and Fed in 4th with 54. Vilas used to have 73, btw. His Wiki total in FO has been moved up from 56 to 58, after is was discovered RG 1972 did not have a 64-man draw as ATP claims but as 256-man draw.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top