Roger Federer: Charting the doubles career of the legend

Roger Federer is gearing up to play his final professional match at the 2022 Laver Cup. After 24 years of towering achievements on the ATP Tour, the Swiss Maestro has decided to call it a day.

The 20-time Major Singles Champion has won 103 tour-level singles titles in his career. A World No. 1 for 310 weeks, Federer had a mighty impressive win-loss record of 1251-275 in his singles career. A six-time winner of the year-ending championships, Federer announced that his final match at the Laver Cup will be a doubles fixture where he will partner his rival and friend Rafael Nadal.

The 2014 Davis Cup champion's achievements in the singles discipline of the sport are well recognized. However, not much is known about the way the Swiss' doubles career has transcended over the years.

1998-2000: Early days, Wimbledon quarterfinal

Roger Federer played his first professional doubles match at the 1998 Gstaad Challenger, partnering Lorenzo Manta. The duo bowed out in the first round. The same year, in front of his home crowd in Basel, the Swiss played his first tour-level doubles match partnering Ivo Heuberger. They lost in the first round to the Russian-Czech duo of Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Daniel Vacek in straight sets.

Between 1998 and 2000, Federer played with 16 different doubles partners across Challenger and tour-level events. During this period, his best result came at the 2000 Wimbledon, where he partnered with Andrew Kratzmann. They managed to reach the quarterfinals and defeated defending champions Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi en route.

Federer and Kratzmann suffered a heart-breaking loss in the quarterfinals against second seeds and eventual runners-up Paul Haarhuis and Sabdon Stolle. The Swiss-Aussie duo lost the match after leading two-sets-to-love. Federer never made it to the doubles quarterfinals at a Slam in his career again.

2001-2003: Maiden doubles Masters, Career high doubles ranking

Between 2001 and 2003, Roger Federer partnered 13 different players. He tasted his maiden success in doubles at the 2001 Rotterdam and Gstaad. He won the title in Rotterdam, partnering Jonas Bjorkman and the Gstaad title alongside Marat Safin.

The following year, Federer partnered alongside Max Mirnyi for most of the season. He successfully defended his Rotterdam title and also won the title in Moscow with the Belarusian.

The Swiss made the semifinals or better at Masters events in doubles seven times in his career. 2003 saw Federer win his first and only Masters doubles title in Miami with Mirnyi as his partner. In June 2003, Federer reached his career-high ranking of No.24 in doubles.

2004 - 2007: Partnership with Allegro

In late 2003, Roger Federer teamed up with compatriot Yves Allegro. Allegro will be a regular doubles partner for Federer up until 2007, with their final event together being the 2010 Halle Open. The duo won the 2003 Vienna and 2005 Halle Open together.

2008 - 2014: Olympic glory followed by sparse doubles participations

By 2008, Roger Federer was the winner of 12 Major singles titles. Despite not being a regular feature in the doubles, he teamed up with fellow Swiss Stan Wawrinka for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. They were the fourth seeds at the event and made the semifinals without dropping a set. They upset top seeds Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan to secure a podium finish.

The Swiss pair finally defeated the Swedish pairing of Thomas Johansson and Simon Aspelin in four sets to win the Olympic gold medal.

Following Olympic glory, Federer's participation in doubles matches was minimal. He partnered with more new partners including Nicolas Mahut, Tommy Haas, Ze Zhang, Marco Chiudinelli and Michael Lammer but did not find any notable success. Between 2009 and 2013, the Swiss lost 11 of the 20 doubles matches he played.

In 2014, he had a decent doubles season, reaching the quarterfinals at Brisbane (w. Mahut), semifinals at Indian Wells (w. Wawrinka) and runner-up finish at Halle (w. Chiudinelli).

2015 - present: Roger Federer and the Laver Cup

Roger Federer played only three matches between 2015 and 2016, losing each of them (partnering Lammer and Chiudinelli). The inception of the Laver Cup brought Federer's biggest rivals to the same side of the net as himself. In the Laver Cup, Federer has thus far won two of the 5 doubles matches he has played. The Swiss has partnered Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Alexander Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas at the team event thus far.

Over the years, Roger Federer has made 14 tour-level doubles finals, winning six of them. He won 131 of the 223 doubles matches he played in his career. In mixed doubles, Federer has been successful in representing Switzerland at the Hopman Cup. He won the 2001 title partnering Martina Hingis and the 2018 and 2019 titles with Belinda Bencic.

On 23rd September 2022, the doubles match featuring Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal will be held in the night session (starts at local time 7 p.m.) after the singles match between Andy Murray and Alex de Minaur.

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