Roger Federer smashed his way into tennis history books on Friday, beating Dutch Robin Haase to reach the semi-finals of the Rotterdam Open.
More significant, he earned the needed points to topple Rafael Nadal as the tennis world number one, becoming the oldest man, at 36, to reach tennis zenith.
Reaching number one is one of, if not the ultimate achievement in our sport,” Federer said on court after being handed a huge No.1 shaped plaque
“Sometimes at the beginning you just kind of get there because you played so well, but later you have to fight for it and have to wrest it back from someone who deserves to be there. When you are older you maybe have to put double the work in. This maybe means the most to me in my career.”
The last time Federer reached the pinnacle of tennisdom was in 2012. He was number one from 2004.
Andre Agassi used to be oldest number one at 33 in 2003. He was the first to congratulate Federer on Friday.
Federer on Monday will officially become number one when the ATP-Emirate ranking is announced.
AFP
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