Roger Federer and Wimbledon - The last junior champion with singles title
Roger Federer won the junior competition at Wimbledon in 1998, and then in 20003 his first of eight men's singles titles. After the Swiss, no player was able to confirm his junior title in singles.
by Jens Huiber
last edit: Sep 27, 2022, 06:32 pm
When Stefan Edberg tossed the coin ahead of Roger Federer's final match at London's O2 Arena on Friday night, four former Wimbledon junior champions were in close quarters. Eben Edberg (winner 1983) and Federer (1998), then Björn Borg (1972). And let's not forget Thomas Enqvist, who was successful as a junior at Church Road in 1991 but was unable to repeat this success with the men.
In fact, Roger Federer is the last junior who was able to follow up a win in the junior competition with a win in the individual. The two immediate successors of the Swiss, Jürgen Melzer (2010 with Philipp Petzschner) and Nicolas Mahut (2016 with Pierre-Hugues Herbert), were able to write in doubles. Melzer also played in mixed doubles with Iveta Benesova.
Federer has maintained his pace of play
Federer's 1998 final against Irakli Labadze didn't take much time, the video of the entire match lasts just over 50 minutes on Youtube. You can see the not quite 17-year-old Swiss, who makes the game fast and doesn't take much time between rallies. But he also quarrels loudly with himself. Roger Federer has discarded that over time, his pace of play has remained almost the same over the course of his career.
Incidentally, since the time of Björn Borg, only one player besides Federer and Edberg has managed to win the men's singles after the junior title: Edberg's predecessor Pat Cash. Denis Shpovalov (2016 winner) and Reilly Opelka (2015) are the most likely of the currently active players who succeeded as youngsters in Wimbledon. The train for Grigor Dimitrov, who drew attention to himself in 2008, has probably left the station. This year the title went to Croatia: Mili Poljicak won the final against Michael Zheng from the USA.