Gunning for his 18th slam, the world number 3 can become the first player to hit $100 Million dollars as prize money earned. Federer, currently at $97.3 million in winnings has had an illustrious career spanning 18 years. Considered one of the greatest players of the open era, his career win/loss record stands at 1065-239 with a staggering 81.67%-win percentage. He has 88 career titles making him 3rd in the open era, and with 17 grand slams, no doubt the Swiss is eyeing the $100 million mark. The player closest to him is current world number 1, Novak Djokovic at just over $94 million in winnings.

With $3.85 million on offer at this year’s Australian Open, a championship win for Federer would propel him to the $100 million mark. Even though the odds are heavily in favour of Djokovic, Federer is off to a solid start and can be a hard nut to beat on his day. Federer just achieved the 300 grand slam win mark defeating Grigor Dimitrov in the 3rd round of the ongoing Aus Open. His journey to 17 grand slams started in 2003 where he defeated Australian Mark Philippoussis at the final of Wimbledon, his first of 7 Wimbledon championships. Year 2004 saw his rise and he won 3 of the 4 slams on offer leaving just the French Open to complete a career grand slam. The 2006 French Open final saw the first of the biggest sports rivalries, the Nadal-Federer rivalry. Nadal defated Federer in 4 sets to win his second title at the Roland Garros.

Federer completed his career slam in 2009, when he finally won the French Open defeating Robin Soderling in the final. His toughest match also came in 2009 when he faced Andy Roddick in the final of the Wimbledon Championships, he eventually ended up winning in a thrilling 5-set encounter with the 5th set going 16-14 in his favour. This was his 6th Wimbledon title and his 15th overall. Keeping aside Grand Slams, Federer has the distinction of winning 6-year end titles, 42 singles master’s titles and 3 doubles master’s titles. He also won the gold medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and a silver medal in the 2012 London Olympics.

Such is the stature of Roger Federer, 34 and still going strong, he could very well be the first player to hit $100 million in on-court winnings.

Sidharth Yadav