Roger Federer Biography

Roger was born on August 8, 1981 in Basel, Switzerland to a Swiss father and South African mother. The number one ranked player in the world first started playing tennis when he was 8 years old, in addition to soccer until the age of 12, when he started to concentrate on his tennis game. By the time he was 14, Roger was the junior Swiss champion for all age groups.By 1998, Roger's last year in the junior's circuit, he was ranked number one in the world and won the junior boy's singles and doubles titles at Wimbledon, and was runner up at the U.S. Open. In 1999, Roger started to play for the Swiss Davis cup team and by the end of the tennis season, he was the youngest player to finish inside the ATP's top 100 rankings.Roger then played in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, where he lost the bronze metal match to Arnaud di Pasquale, a french player. Also at the 2000 Olymipics, Roger met his girlfriend, fellow tennis player Miroslava (Mirka) Vavrinec. In 2001, Roger became Switzerland's first number one ranked player.

Rafael Nadal Biography

Nicknamed "Rafa", Rafael Nadal has took the tennis world by storm over the past 5 years as he has made his way on the professional tennis circuit to number 2 in the world with a staggering clay-court winning streak of 60 consecutive matches.He was born June 3rd 1986 in Manacor, Mallorca to Sebastián and Ana María. He has great sporting heritage as his Uncle is former F.C. Barcelona footballer Miguel Ángel Nadal. Between 1986 and 2001 (the year in which he turned pro at only age 15) he developed a brilliant all round game playing left-handed despite being naturally right-handed.
His rise since then has been a quick and exhilarating one. In 2002, he won his first ATP match at Majorca at the age of 15, defeating Ramon Delgado to become the ninth player in the Open Era to win an ATP match before his 16th birthday. One year later in 2003 he became the second-youngest player to be ranked among the world's top 100 singles players and earned ATP Newcomer of the Year. At his Wimbledon debut, at only age 16, he became the youngest player to reach the 3rd round since 16-year-old Boris Becker in 1984 and in July 2003 he reached the Spanish championships where he lost to Lopez.