Swiss tennis player Roger Federer's main accomplishments as a junior player came at Wimbledon, where, in 1998, he won both the singles tournament over Irakli Labadze, in straight sets,[1] and the doubles with Olivier Rochus, over the team of Michaël Llodra and Andy Ram, also in straight sets.[2] In addition, Federer was a runner-up at the US Open Junior tournament in 1998, losing the final to David Nalbandian.[3] Federer would go on to win four other junior singles tournaments in his career.
As a junior, Federer was also known as a "hot head" on court which is distinct from his adult image of cool and calm, and being a great on-court role model.[4]
Federer was almost four years old when Boris Becker, his childhood idol, won his first Wimbledon title in 1985. From then on, Federer watched "tennis matches on television for hours on end."[5] [6] Reflecting on his childhood, he said, "I liked tennis the best of all sports. It was always exciting and winning or losing was always in my hands."[5] Soon after enrolling in school at the age of six, Federer became the best in his age group and trained three times a week in and around Basel.[7] When he was eight, Federer joined a region-wide tennis group, where he first met Marco Chiudinelli, a "talented" boy who belonged to the nearby Basel Lawn Tennis Club; just a month younger than Federer.[5] They quickly became friends, playing squash, table tennis, and football together, but were soon the 'black sheep' of the group, with one or the other often forced to sit on the sidelines for disciplinary reasons.[5]
They first played each other at an official event called The Bambino Cup in Arlesheim when both were eight. "Back then we only played one long set of up to nine games", Chiudinelli recollects. "Things weren't going well for me at the beginning. I was behind 2–5 and I started to cry. We cried a lot back then even during the matches. Roger came up to me and tried to comfort me when we switched sides. He told me everything would be alright, and in fact, things got better. I took the lead 7–6 and noticed that the tide had turned. Then he began to cry and I ran up to him and give him encouragement and things went better for him. It was the only time I could beat him."[5]
When he was 10, Federer began weekly private coaching with Adolf Kacovsky, a tennis coach at The Old Boys Tennis Club. "I noticed right away that this guy was a natural talent", said Kacovsky. "He was born with a racquet in his hand." At first, Federer received lessons only while part of a group, although "the club and I quickly noticed he was enormously talented. We began giving him private lessons that were partly funded by the club. Roger was a quick learner. When you wanted to teach him something new, he was able to pick it up after three or four tries, while others in the group needed weeks."[5]
Federer began using the one-handed backhand from an early age not only because Kacovsky was a fan of it, but also because all of his childhood idols, Stefan Edberg, fellow German Boris Becker, and later Pete Sampras, used the one-hander too.[8] From ages 8 to 10, Federer received group and individual training from Kacovsky.[8] At age 10, Federer began being taught at the club by Australian former tennis player Peter Carter.[8]
In 1993, Federer won the U12 Swiss national junior championships in Lucerne.[8] [9] Becoming the best junior in the country helped him decide to become a professional tennis player, so he stopped playing football at age twelve to concentrate solely on tennis, where he felt he had more control over his victories or defeats, rather than relying on the performances of his teammates.[8] [7] [10]
In 1995, at age 13, Federer won the U14 Swiss national junior championship and was chosen to train at the Swiss National Tennis Center in the French-speaking Écublens.[6] [11] In January 1997, at age 15, Federer won the U18 Swiss national championship.[8]
Federer joined the ITF junior tennis circuit in mid-1996, at the age of 14, and played his first match there at a grade-2 tournament in Switzerland.[12] In May 1997, Federer won his first-ever ITF junior title in a second category tournament in Prato, defeating Luka Kutanjac in the final.[13]
Federer began the 1998 season by winning a second-category tournament in Victoria, defeating Julien Jeanpierre in the final.[13] This victory saw him become one of the favorites for the Australian Open junior event, but Federer was stopped in the semifinals by Jeanpierre.[13] He then won another second category tournament, this time in Florence, defeating Filippo Volandri in the final.[13]
His main accomplishments as a junior player came at Wimbledon in 1998, when he won both the boys' singles final over Irakli Labadze, in straight sets,[1] and the doubles with Olivier Rochus, over the team of Michaël Llodra and Andy Ram, also in straight sets.[2] Federer then reached the final of the US Open junior event, which he lost to David Nalbandian.[3] In November, Federer went on a tour in the United States, where he participated in the under 18s category at the prestigious Eddie Herr International Junior Championships in Florida, and in the Junior Orange Bowl in Miami, winning the later after beating Nalbandian in the semiinals and Guillermo Coria in the final.[13] [14] By the end of 1998 he attained the No. 1 junior world ranking and was awarded ITF Junior World Champion.[15]
Despite having another year as a junior left to go (1999), Federer instead decided to play full-time on the ATP tour,[16] thus ending his ITF junior career at the end of 1998 with a high ranking of No. 1 in singles and No. 7 in doubles (both attained on 31 December 1998) and a win–loss record of 78–20 in singles and 36–21 in doubles.[17] In total, he won four ITF junior singles tournaments in his career.[13]
| 2–1 | Tier GA | |
| 0–0 | Tier G1 | |
| 3–0 | Tier G2 |
| Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Opponent | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Win | 1–0 | May 1997 | Prato Junior Tournament, Italy | G2 | Clay | Luka Kutanjac | 6–4, 6–0 | |
| Win | 2–0 | Jan 1998 | Victoria Junior Championship, Australia | G2 | Hard |  Julien Jeanpierre | 6–4, 6–4 | |
| Win | 3–0 | Apr 1998 | Florence International Tournament, Italy | G2 | Clay |  Filippo Volandri | 7–6, 6–3 | |
| Win | 4–0 | Jul 1998 | Wimbledon, United Kingdom | GA | Grass |  Irakli Labadze | 6–4, 6–4 | |
| Loss | 4–1 | Sep 1998 | US Open, United States | GA | Hard |  David Nalbandian | 3–6, 5–7 | |
| Win | 5–1 | Dec 1998 | Orange Bowl, United States | GA | Hard | Guillermo Coria | 7–5, 6–3 |
| 1–0 | Tier GA | |
| 1–0 | Tier G1 | |
| 0–2 | Tier G2 |
| Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Partner | Opponents | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loss | 0–1 | May 1997 | Prato Junior Tournament, Italy | G2 | Clay |  Jun Kato |  Maxim Belski Tomas Hajek | 2–6, 2–6 | |
| Loss | 0–2 | Apr 1998 | Florence International Tournament, Italy | G2 | Clay | Jun Kato | Filippo Volandri Urus Vico | 3–6, 1–6 | |
| Win | 1–2 | Jun 1998 | LTA Junior Championships, United Kingdom | G1 | Grass |  Olivier Rochus | 3–6, 6–4, 7–5 | ||
| Win | 2–2 | Jul 1998 | Wimbledon, United Kingdom | GA | Grass | Olivier Rochus | 6–4, 6–4 |