Roger Federer still has a tennis record from 2005 that might never be broken.
Starting this Sunday (November 15), eight of the world’s top tennis players will shine at the ATP Finals—an event where Roger Federer still holds an amazing record that might never be beaten.
Throughout his incredible career, Federer won this year-end tournament six times, second only to Novak Djokovic, and he has the most final appearances with 10. The 20-time Grand Slam champ won the trophy in three different cities: Houston, Shanghai, and London. One of his most unforgettable moments came in 2005 in Shanghai, where he showed a level of skill that’s hard to imagine being matched.
Back then, Federer was nearly unstoppable, with one of the best forehands in tennis history and a smooth, strong serve. He had all the tools that made him one of the sport’s greats, especially during his dominant run in the mid-2000s. Out of five ATP Finals appearances from 2003 to 2007, Federer won four. The one year he didn’t win, 2005, he still made history.
In the semi-final that year against Gaston Gaudio, Federer won 6-0, 6-0—a “double bagel”—the first and only time that’s ever happened at this tournament. Gaudio was honest about how tough it was after the match, saying he was disappointed but accepted it as part of life.
Interestingly, five years before that, Gaudio had made a surprising prediction about Federer, calling him “terrible” and saying he’d never be world number one because of his backhand. Of course, Federer proved him completely wrong by becoming one of the best ever and staying number one for an amazing 310 weeks. Gaudio later laughed about his wrong guess and praised Federer’s greatness.
This year, players like Alexander Zverev, Carlos Alcaraz, Ben Shelton, Daniil Medvedev, Flavio Cobolli, Arthur Fils, Frances Tiafoe, and Rafael Jodar will compete in the tournament. The event uses a round-robin format, splitting the eight singles players and doubles teams into two groups of four. The winners and runners-up of each group then move on to the semi-finals, with matchups arranged so top players face runners-up from the other group.
Up until 2007, the final was played as a best-of-five sets match, like in Grand Slams, but since then, it’s been best-of-three sets. After winning the 2011 final against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Federer shared his thoughts on bringing back the best-of-five format, saying he liked the extra excitement it created and noticed fans enjoyed longer matches. Although most players preferred best-of-three sets, Federer was the only one who wanted to keep the longer format. In the end, he accepted the change but still cared about the difference.