5 records that will likely elude Roger Federer forever

In his 22-year professional career, Roger Federer has enthralled and entertained millions of tennis aficionados. Federer's effortless game-style and silken one-handed backhand are the embodiment of poetry in motion, and can make anyone fall in love with the game of tennis - which incidentally starts at 'love all'.

American great Jimmy Connors, an eight-time Grand Slam winner who holds the records for most singles titles (109) and most singles match wins (1274) in the Open Era, once said about Federer's game: "In an era of specialists, there are clay-courters, there are hard-courters, there are grass-courters, and there is Roger Federer."

Indeed, the 'homogenisation' of surfaces was an alien concept until a few years ago; when Federer started his career, you had to be a specialist to survive and excel in the sport. But then there are always exceptions to the rule, and Federer turned out to be one such glorious exception.

The Swiss does not possess the most ferocious of serves, but it is still highly effective. Experienced returners can anticipate the type of serve from from the ball toss and a few other subtle indications, but Federer offers no such clues to his opponent. With the same ball toss, Federer can hit a flat serve, a slider out wide or a high-bouncing kicker, leaving the best of returners guessing about the direction of the delivery coming at them.

The Swiss' all-court game is at its majestic best on grasscourts, which is 'technically' the fastest surface in the game. It is the surface where all the elements of Federer's game are in harmonious sync, enabling him to churn out a vast range of 'melodies' which have bamboozled, flummoxed and ultimately overwhelmed many a fine player. That is what makes watching Federer play on the Centre Court of Wimbledon the ultimate tennis experience for connoisseurs and casual fans alike.

Federer's longevity and sustained excellence have enabled him to conquer many a tennis peak. On the week starting 25 November 2019, Federer has had an ATP ranking for 1187 consecutive weeks. Only two other active players - Feliciano Lopez and Ivo Karlovic - have had an ATP ranking period for a longer duration.

The Swiss has been ranked inside the top 100 for a staggering 1054 weeks (1036 weeks uninterrupted since 11 October 1999), which is the most by any player, active or retired. Federer's 733 consecutive weeks inside the top 10 is a tally bettered only by Rafael Nadal. His tally of 872 weeks inside the top 10 is the best in the Open Era, ahead of Jimmy Connors' mark of 814 weeks.

Federer has the most Grand Slam titles (20), Grand Slam match wins (357), Grand Slam appearances (78), ATP Finals appearances (17), ATP Finals titles (6), hardcourt titles (71), and grasscourt titles (19) in the Open Era. The Swiss is the only player to have reached all four Grand Slam finals in a year on three occasions (2006-07, 2009), twice coming within two sets of a calendar-year-Slam - not recorded by any player since Rod Laver in 1969.

Federer lifted his 20th Grand Slam title at the 2018 Australian Open

Federer is the only player to win Wimbledon and the US Open back-to-back in four consecutive years. Jimmy Connors (1974, 1982), John McEnroe (1981, 1984) and Novak Djokovic (2011, 2015, 2018) managed to win Wimbledon and US Open in the same year on multiple occasions, but none did so in consecutive years.

The Swiss maestro is one of only two players in the Open Era to have won 1200 singles matches and 100 singles titles, the other being Connors. In 2019, Federer became the oldest player to win a Masters 1000 title when be beat John Isner in the Miami final. A few months later, the Swiss maestro's 10th title in his hometown tournament of Basel marked the first instance of a player winning 10 titles on two different surfaces (also Halle - grass).

But despite having such a long list of records to his name, there are a few significant ones that have been out of Federer's reach so far - and may continue being out of reach forever. Here's a look at five of those records:

#1 Most singles titles in a season

In 1977, Argentina's Guillermo Vilas won a staggering 16 titles. That remains the best single-season title tally by any player in the Open Era.

Ivan Lendl (1982) won 15 titles, while Bjorn Borg (1979) and John McEnroe (1984) won 13 titles. The next ones on the list are Thomas Muster (1995) and Federer himself (2006), with 12 titles apiece.

Bjorn Borg

With Federer playing a truncated schedule since the last five seasons - 14 in 2019, 13 in 2018, 12 in 2017, 7 in 2016 and 17 in 2015 - we can safely assume this record will remain outside Federer's grasp.

#2 Most singles match wins in a year

Guillermo Vilas at a tournament in 1977

Guillermo Vilas holds the record of most singles match wins in a season. The Argentine left-hander compiled a staggering 136 match wins from 150 matches during the 1977 season.

It was a recurring theme in the 70s and early 80s for a player to win over 100 singles matches in a season. Prior to Vilas, Ilie Nastase of Romania won 125 matches and lost 13 in 1973. Ivan Lendl won 110 matches in 1980, and 106 in 1982.

Federer's 92 wins in 2006 is the 7th best single-season win tally in the Open Era. After 2006, Federer's highest win-tally of 73 came in 2014.

With the Swiss maestro playing fewer tournaments the last four seasons than he did in his prime, this record seems far away from Federer's grasp.

#3 Best win% in a season

Federer poses with 2005 ATP Finals (then called the Tennis Masters Cup) winner David Nalbandian

Federer produced one of his most dominant seasons in 2005. Following losses in the semifinals of the Australian Open (Marat Safin) and French Open (Rafael Nadal), Federer lost only one other match all year before arriving to the final of the 2005 ATP Finals, then called the Tennis Masters Cup.

Having won 81 matches in the season, Federer was a win away from equaling John McEnroe's mark of 82-3 (96.5%), which is the best success rate in a single ATP season.

On a 35-match win streak (the sixth best in the Open Era), Federer was also on a record 24-match win streak in tournament finals. Having beaten David Nalbandian in the group-stage of the tournament, Federer was an overwhelming favorite for the title - which would have helped him record the joint-best match win% in an ATP season.

Nalbandian led 4-0 in the fifth before Federer fought back, and he was a service game away from winning the title at 5-4. But the Swiss maestro faltered at the last hurdle and fell in the ensuing tiebreak, ending the season with a 95.3% win rate.

Federer would not come close to equaling or surpassing McEnroe's mark again. A 92-5 win-loss record in 2006 and a 54-5 record in 2017 have been his only other 90% win-rate seasons since then.

With the Swiss losing more frequently these days, often to lower-ranked players that he would have swatted aside in his prime, he is not likely to come anywhere close to McEnroe's record of the best win% in a season again.

#4 Winning a calendar-year Grand Slam

Federer won his Roland Garros title in 2009, to complete the career Grand Slam

In 2019, Federer played all four Grand Slam tournaments for the first time since 2015. The Swiss maestro's last Grand Slam title was at the Australian Open in 2018, where he won a record-extending 20th Grand Slam title.

At the French Open, Federer hasn't made the final since 2011, which was his fifth title match on the Parisian clay. The Swiss maestro won his lone Roland Garros title in 2009.

In each of the four other years he reached the final, he was thwarted by Rafael Nadal. Federer's 2019 Roland Garros semifinal (lost to Nadal) was his first at the tournament in seven years (since 2012, where he lost to Novak Djokovic).

Federer is usually at his imperious best at Wimbledon. The record eight-time champion was twice a swing of his racquet away from winning a ninth title this year, only to be thwarted by Djokovic in a historic first-ever Wimbledon fifth-set tiebreak.

Flushing Meadows has been a tournament of diminishing returns over the years for Federer. The Swiss won the last of his five (consecutive) titles at the last Major of the year in 2008. Since then, Federer has only reached two other title matches - 2009 (lost to Juan Martin del Potro) and 2015 (lost to Djokovic).

Wimbledon remains Federer's best bet to add to his Grand Slam tally, followed by the Australian Open. The US Open and the French Open, in that order, are probably the least likely places for Federer to win another Grand Slam title.

Going forward, the possibility of Federer reaching all four Grand Slam finals in the same year is a very remote possibility, let alone the Swiss maestro going all the way at each tournament in the same year.

The same also applies to the Swiss maestro's chances of becoming the first player in the Open Era to win each of the four Grand Slam tournaments multiple times. Nadal at the French Open is the biggest impediment in the path of Federer accomplishing this milestone.

#5 Winning the Olympics singles gold

Federer's silver at the 2012 Olympics singles is his best return in Olympics singles

Federer first contested in the Olympics in Sydney as a precocious 19-year-old. The then 36th-ranked Swiss teenager beat David Prinosil, Karol Kucera, Mikael Tillstrom and Karim Alami to reach the semifinals, where he fell to Tommy Haas in straight sets. He subsequently lost to Frenchman Arnaud De Pasquale in the bronze-medal match.

At the next Olympics in Athens, Federer arrived as the No. 1 ranked player in the world. The Swiss maestro beat Nikolay Davydenko in the first round before being stunned 5-7 in the third set by Czech teenager Tomas Berdych.

Four years later, at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Federer had his revenge over Berdych, ousting the Czech player in the pre-quarterfinals. But he then lost to American James Blake in straight sets in the quarterfinals.

2012 turned out to Federer's fourth and till date, latest appearance at the Olympics. Fresh off winning his 17th Grand Slam title at Wimbledon, Federer conquered five players, including Juan Martin del Potro in a 19-17 third-set, to reach his first Olympic final.

However, the Swiss ran out of gas in the title match. In a rematch of that year's Wimbledon final, Murray exacted revenge on the same court by handing Federer a rare straight-set defeat on grass.

Federer did not compete at the 2016 Olympics as he ended his season prematurely, owing to an injury.

With the Swiss legend having announced his plans to compete at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, in what is likely to be his final appearance at an Olympics, there are a few expectations that Federer would join Nadal and Andre Agassi as the only male singles players to win the Career Golden Slam (all four Grand Slams and the Olympics singles gold).

However, any such expectations must be tempered with the fact that owing to advancing age and slowing reflexes, Federer has displayed a worrying propensity of losing against many lower-ranked players. With the Olympics singles being a best-of-three set event, Federer is also likely to run into his Big 3 rivals - Djokovic and/or Nadal, both of whom have a winning head-to-head record against the Swiss maestro.

In retrospect, Athens 2004 was perhaps Federer's best bet to win the Olympics singles gold. The chances of him winning the elusive gold in the Japanese capital next year are slim at best.