Anniversary: ​​Federer’s first rise to No. 1 | ATP Tour

Club No. 1

Anniversary: ​​Federer’s first rise to No. 1

The Swiss debuted at the top in 2004

February 02, 2025

In the first story of our new series about the key dates in the history of the Club of the No. 1 of the ATP, we reflect on the historical debut of Roger Federer as No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings, which began on February 2 of 2004.

Before there was a Big 3 or a Big 4, there was Roger Federer as No. 1 of the world. On February 2, 2004, the Swiss teacher first awarded the throne at the top of the ranking. After the honors of No. 1 changed hands five times in 2023, Federer did it in 2004 and did not give up his place for a record time of 237 weeks, before Rafael Nadal debuted as No. 1 in August 2008, 2008 .

By beating former world nº 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero in the semifinals of the Australian Open of 2004, Federer was guaranteed to overcome Andy Roddick in the fight for first place. But, as usual in him, he ended up winning the title, beating Marath Safin in a three sets final.

“I am happy to have had a great beginning of the season and to finally be number one,” said Federer at that time. “And it makes me feel really strange.”

The Swiss quickly got used to his high position, which arrived after a seven -titles season in 2003. Among those trophies were his first win in a Grand Slam in Wimbledon and his first title in the tennis Masters Cup (now the Nitto ATP Finals ), In addition to at least one title on each surface of the ATP Tour. In the 12 months prior to his debut as number one, Federer won 80 games.

Federer possessed only two Grand Slams and an ATP Masters 1000 trophy when he first amounted to number one. When his initial stage ended, he was 12 times champion of Majors tournaments and 14 times ATP Masters 1000 champion.

18 years passed from the moment Federer debuted in number one so that someone outside the 4 greats took first place. The Federer-Nadal-Djokovic-Murray monopoly broke in February 2022 by Daniil Medvedev.

Federer is still the only Swiss player who has promoted to the world number one. In addition to his 237 weeks record at the top of his initial stage, Federer also had two other notable number one records until he was surpassed by Novak Djokovic. The last of its 310 total weeks passed as No. 1 in 2018, a record number of weeks until Djokovic surpassed it in 2021. The Swiss was 36 years and 10 months when he spent his last week as No. 1 in June 2018, which made him the oldest No. 1 until Djokovic was awarded that honor in 2024.

With a record of 430-56 in matches during its time as No. 1, the percentage of Federer victories of 88.5 percent is the fifth highest among the 29 numbers one in the history of the PIF ATP Rankings.