Roger Federer (German pronunciation:) (born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss professional tennis player who held the ATP number one position for a record 237 consecutive weeks, and 285 weeks overall. As of 20 June 2011, he is ranked World No. 3 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). Federer has won a men's record 16 Grand Slam singles titles. He is one of seven male players to capture the career Grand Slam and one of three (with Andre Agassi and Rafael Nadal) to do so on three different surfaces (clay, grass and hard courts)
He is the only male player in tennis history to have reached the title match of each Grand Slam tournament at least 5 times. Many sports analysts, tennis critics, and former and current players consider Federer to be the greatest tennis player of all time.Federer has appeared in an unprecedented 23 career Grand Slam finals, of which 10 were consecutive appearances, and appeared in 18 of 19 finals over the four and a half years from the 2005 Wimbledon Championships through the 2010 Australian Open, excluding the 2008 
Australian Open. He holds the record of reaching the semifinals or better of 23 consecutive Grand Slam tournaments over five and a half years from the 2004 Wimbledon Championships through the 2010 Australian Open. In the 2011 French Open he reached his 28th consecutive quarterfinal in the Grand Slam tournaments, breaking the record set by Jimmy Connors.
Federer has won a record five ATP World Tour Finals (shared with Ivan Lendl and Pete Sampras) and 17 ATP Masters Series tournaments (tied second all-time). He also won the Olympic gold medal in doubles with his compatriot Stanislas Wawrinka at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. For the past eight years (2003–2010) he has been in the top two in the year-end rankings.
Federer was born in Binningen, near Basel, to Swiss national Robert Federer and South African-born Lynette.He holds both Swiss and South African citizenships.He grew up in suburban Münchenstein, near Basel, close to the French-German borders and Federer speaks Swiss German, German, French and English fluently. He considers German his first language. He was raised as a Roman Catholic and met Pope Benedict XVI while playing the 2006 Internazionali BNL d'Italia tournament in Rome. Like all male Swiss citizens,
Federer is married to former Women's Tennis Association player Mirka Vavrinec. They met while both competing for Switzerland in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Vavrinec retired from the tour in 2002 because of a foot injury and has since been working as Federer's public relations manager. They were married in Basel on 11 April 2009, surrounded by a small group of close friends and family at Wenkenhof Villa (municipality of Riehen). On 23 July 2009, Mirka gave birth to twin girls, Myla Rose and Charlene Riva.
Federer supports a number of charities. He established the Roger Federer Foundation in 2003 to help disadvantaged people and to promote sports.In 2005, he auctioned his racquet from his US Open championship to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina He was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador by UNICEF in 2006. At the 2005 Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, Federer arranged an exhibition involving several top players from the ATP tour and WTA tour called Rally for Relief. The proceeds from the event went to the victims of the tsunami caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. Since then, he has visited South Africa and Tamil Nadu, one of the areas in India most affected by the tsunami.[31] He has also appeared in UNICEF public messages to raise public awareness of AIDS. In response to the 2010 Haiti 