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Johannesburg - On Friday, at the of 36, Roger Federer continued to cement his place in history books by becoming the oldest player in tennis history to reach the world's No 1 spot.
He achieved this after dismantling Robin Haase 4-6, 6-1, 6-1 to reach the semi-finals of the Rotterdam Open.
He was last the top-ranked tennis player in the world in November 2012, and first climbed to No 1 in February 2004. The Swiss champion has beaten the record set by US player Andre Agassi, who was 33 when he was on top of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) world rankings in 2003.
Federer claimed a record 20th Grand Slam title when he won the Australian Open last month, when he also became the oldest player to triumph in Melbourne since Australian Ken Rosewall in 1972.
The five-time US Open winner started this year as well as he did in 2017.
After coming back to the court after knee surgery, he began last year at No 17, and collected the first Grand Slam title of the year (Australian Open) after beating arch rival Rafael Nadal. He went on to win a total of eight titles, including two Grand Slams.
The sport legend, who turns 37 in August, also won the Masters 1 000 titles at Indian Wells, Miami, and Shanghai.
He won his eighth Wimbledon title last year and became the oldest man in the Open era to win at the All England Club.
He surpassed US player Pete Sampras (2000) and UK player William Renshaw (1889).
There’s only one person still ahead of him - American Martina Navratilova, who has nine Wimbledon singles titles.
The Fed Express finished the year in position two behind Nadal.
He lost just four of his 56 matches last season. Nadal won 67 and lost 10. Federer will officially replace Nadal at the top when the new rankings are published on Monday.
This week, Federer told ABC News: “What an amazing journey it’s been a for me... to clinch world No 1”
Since 2012, only Nadal, Serbian Novak Djokovic and the UK’s Andy Murray have held the No 1 spot.
