#ThisDAyInHistory: ON THIS DAY IN 2004 SWISS TENNIS PLAYER ROGER FEDERER BECAME THE WORLD NUMBER ONE RANKED PLAYER, A POSITION HE HELD CONSECUTIVELY FOR A RECORD 237 WEEKS.
Written by Olaide Adewale on February 2, 2021
On this day in 2004, Swiss tennis player Roger Federer became the No. 1 ranked men’s singles player, a position he will hold for a record 237 weeks in a stretch.
Roger Federer holds the records for both the most total weeks at No. 1 at 310 and most consecutive weeks at No. 1 237.
Pete Sampras holds the record for the most year-end No. 1 rankings six, all consecutive.
Patrick Rafter spent the least time at No. 1 one week.
Lleyton Hewitt is both the youngest world No. 1 at 20 years, 268 days and youngest year-end No. 1, while Roger Federer is the oldest No. 1 at 36 years, 320 days.
Novak Djokovic is the oldest year-end No. 1 st 31 years, 223 days.
Roger Federer is the player with the longest time span between first and most recent dates at world No. 1 in the history of the ATP.
He most recently held the top ranking the week of June 18, 2018, more than fourteen years after first becoming No. 1 on February 2, 2004.
Rafael Nadal has the longest timespan, 9 years, between his first and last year-end No. 1 titles, 2008 and 2017.
Two players, Ivan Lendl and Marcelo Ríos, have reached No. 1 without previously having won a Grand Slam tournament.
Lendl reached No. 1 on February 21, 1983, but did not win his first Grand Slam title until the 1984 French Open.
Ríos reached No. 1 on March 30, 1998, but retired without ever having won a Grand Slam singles title, making him the only No. 1 player with that distinction.
Since 1973 when the ATP rankings started, there have been twelve years in which one player held the top spot for the entire year: Jimmy Connors in 1975, 1976, and 1978; Ivan Lendl in 1986 and 1987; Pete Sampras in 1994 and 1997; Lleyton Hewitt in 2002; Roger Federer in 2005, 2006, and 2007; and Novak Djokovic in 2015.
In contrast to this, 1999 saw five different players hold the No. 1 ranking, the most in any single year: Pete Sampras, Carlos Moya, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Andre Agassi, and Patrick Rafter.
John McEnroe held the No. 1 ranking on a record 14 different occasions, and Pete Sampras is the only other player to have held it on 10 or more occasions with 11 different stints.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY IS A PRODUCTION OF Jay101.9fm
