Well, this will come as no surprise to anyone who’s paid any attention over the past quarter-century:\u00a0Roger Federer\u00a0was elected to the\u00a0International Tennis Hall of Fame\u00a0in his first year of eligibility, the Rhode Island-based Hall announced Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The first man to win 20 Grand Slam singles titles, and part of an era of unprecedented greatness with rivals\u00a0Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic\u00a0\u2014 during what Federer termed \u201ca golden time for tennis\u201d \u2014 he was the only candidate to receive enough support in the player category for the Hall’s class of 2026.<\/p>\n
Players can be considered after five years away from the tour and need to be selected by 75% of the voting group, which includes tennis media, historians, industry leaders, members of the Hall and fans. The Hall does not reveal voting results.<\/p>\n
TV announcer and journalist Mary Carillo, who also was a player, was elected in the contributor category. The induction ceremony is in August.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always valued the history of tennis and the example set by those who came before me,\u201d Federer said. \u201cTo be recognized in this way by the sport and by my peers is deeply humbling.\u201d<\/p>\n
He is one of eight men with a career Grand Slam, collecting eight championships at Wimbledon, six at the Australian Open, five at the U.S. Open and one at the French Open.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t predict I was going to have this many majors,\u201d Federer once said in\u00a0an interview with The Associated Press. \u201cI was hoping to maybe have one, to be quite honest, at the very beginning of my career.\u201d<\/p>\n
Federer’s first Slam title came at the All England Club in 2003, and he broke Pete Sampras\u2019 then-record for a male of 14 major titles by winning Wimbledon in 2009, defeating Andy Roddick 16-14 in the fifth set of the final. Federer claimed his 20th at the 2018 Australian Open.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t really feel like I\u2019m playing for the records,\u201d Federer once told the AP. \u201cI play this game because I love it.\u201d<\/p>\n
His Grand Slam count eventually was surpassed by Nadal,\u00a0who got to 22 before retiring last year at age 38, and Djokovic, who has 24 and is\u00a0still active at 38.<\/p>\n
With a terrific forehand and serve, an attacking, all-court style and footwork\u00a0that made everything seem so effortless, Federer won 103 tournaments and 1,251 matches in singles, totals eclipsed in the men’s game only by Jimmy Connors in the Open era, which began in 1968.<\/p>\n
Federer finished five years at No. 1 in the ATP rankings, spent a record 237 consecutive weeks and a total of 310 in the top spot, led Switzerland to the 2014 Davis Cup title and teamed with Stan Wawrinka for a doubles gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.<\/p>\n
An ambassador for the game who often answered questions in English, French and Swiss German at news conferences, Federer\u00a0played his last match at Wimbledon in 2021. He was a month shy of 40 at the time.<\/p>\n
His retirement announcement\u00a0came the following year; he bid farewell by playing doubles\u00a0alongside Nadal at the Laver Cup, an event Federer’s management company founded.<\/p>\n
Along the way, Federer established himself as a model for younger athletes such as Carlos Alcaraz, 22, the current No. 1 who owns six Slam trophies.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe elegance he has shown on court, off the court \u2014 how he treated people, everyone; a really humble guy \u2014 everything he does, he does with elegance,\u201d Alcaraz said. \u201cI appreciate that. He took the game to another level … that’s what I admire the most.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the height of his powers, Federer reached a record 10 consecutive\u00a0Grand Slam finals\u00a0from 2005-07, winning eight. That dominance extended to appearing in 18 of 19 Slam finals; he also put together streaks of 23 semifinals and 36 quarterfinals at majors.<\/p>\n
Djokovic has called those \u201cresults that didn\u2019t seem human.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the Hall, Carillo was the first woman to regularly commentate on tennis broadcasts and was a correspondent for HBO\u2019s \u201cReal Sports.\u201d She won six Emmy Awards and three Peabody Awards and was inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2018.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been privileged to spend my career sharing the stories of this magnificent game,” Carillo said, “and if I\u2019ve opened any doors along the way, it will make this day in August even more meaningful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Next year’s ballot will include holdovers Juan Martin del Potro and Svetlana Kuznetsova in the player category, while\u00a0Serena Williams\u00a0and Ash Barty, who both played their last matches in 2022, will be eligible for the Hall for the first time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Well, this will come as no surprise to anyone who’s paid any attention over the past quarter-century:\u00a0Roger Federer\u00a0was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":{"0":"post-294048","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}