Roger Federer Credits Stefan Edberg, Pete Sampras For His Tennis Style

Roger Federer is widely considered the greatest ever tennis player in the history of the game owing to his achievements on court — 20 men’s singles Grand Slam titles, most consecutive weeks as the world number one and 98 ATP singles titles among others.

The Swiss tennis legend also became the oldest world number one in the history of the game when reached the summit in February this year, but broke that record by a few months when he reclaimed the number one ranking earlier this month.

Apart from his achievements, Federer’s style of play is also something very unique to the Swiss maestro. He has a smooth flowing style that is easy on the eye and is one of few players on tour that has a single handed backhand, which the Swiss ace admits was picked up from few of the players he admired.

Federer displayed a more aggressive brand of tennis when he returned from injury at the start of the 2017 season, but his style remains the same and the current world number two admitted that his style developed from players he admired when he was younger.

The 36-year-old prefers to serve and volley unlike most of the players today, who stick to the baseline on most occasions. And his style comes from an era of players that used serve and volley to earn their bread and butter — Pete Sampras, Stefan Edberg and Boris Becker.

“I think the style of my play comes from the players I used to admire,” Federer said talking about his style, as quoted on Tennis World USA.

“So Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg and Pete Sampras all played in a similar way, but they had their unique style. What sticks out is that they all had a one-handed backhand. That’s maybe why I have a one-handed backhand because they had one,” the 20-time Grand Slam winner explained.

“There were, of course, the Jim Courier's and Andre Agassi's with two-handed backhands, but that inspired me to play the way I played. I used to probably chip it a lot more like Edberg and Sampras did,” he added.

Federer is currently in London preparing for the Wimbledon Championships beginning on July 2. He skipped the entire clay court season to focus on the grass court events and has backed it up by winning the Mercedes Cup and making the final in Halle.

The eight-time Wimbledon winner lost his number one ranking when he lost the final at the Gerry Weber Open on June 24, but can regain it if he defends his title at the All England Club and his long-time rival and current world number one Rafael Nadal loses before the fourth round. The two have already switched the top spot between them on six occasions this season.