Federer Begins 287th Week at #1, Besting Sampras

Roger Federer is assured of being #1 on the ATP Tour for the 287th week, the most of any player, finally surpassing the previous record of 286 weeks held by his idol Pete Sampras by winning the 2012 Wimbledon championships, his seventh, and 17th major singles title overall on Sunday July 8th. Federer is a mere 75 points ahead of Novak Djokovic but significantly ahead of Rafael Nadal. Both of those players have US Open final points to defend at the end of the summer, which Federer does not. Federer has wanted the record for most weeks at #1 for quite awhile, having lost his #1 ranking in June 2010 to Nadal.

Federer is now 30 years old, more than 5 years older than his main rivals, 11-time major champion Nadal and 5-time major champion Djokovic, who are really in their prime tennis years. He will turn 31 on August 8th, but before then the London Olympics will be held, at the grass courts of the All-England Lawn Tennis Club. The one item missing from Federer's bulging trophy case is an Olympic Gold Medal for Singles.

Will he achieve that goal as well? I wouldn't bet against him. The Olympic tournament will be played as best-of-3 sets until the final which will be best-of-five sets.