Tennis champion and veteran Roger Federer beat the odds after recently winning the Australian Open for his 20th Grand Slam championship, which is an unprecedented feat in tennis sports history.
Federer came up against a highly-talented Croatian in Marin Cilic, a winner of 17 Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) championships, as well as the 2014 U.S. Open. Cilic is only 29 years old, seven years younger than the 36-year-old Federer. The Swiss champion won his match with the Croatian with a 6-1 score.
During the awards ceremony, Federer was extremely emotional in receiving his 20th Grand Slam championship trophy, which could secure him to go down as the greatest men's tennis player of all time.
"The fairy tale continues, for us, for me," Federer said during the ceremony while tears flowed. "After the great year I had last year....it's incredible," he added, referring to his even more surprising championship victory last year after taking a six-month break due to a lingering knee injury.
Federer was deemed to be in the twilight, if not the end of his career in 2016. The Swiss champion had not won a title in recent years all while his health seemed to be declining. The continued dominance of younger stars such as Spain's Rafael Nadal and the Serbian Novak Djokovic are also reasons why many tennis analysts and fans have written Federer off in 2016.
Nadal (31 years old) and Djokovic (30 years old) have won 16 and 12 Grand Slams already, with Nadal, who is currently the first seed, inching closer to Federer's recent feat.
Still, the 36-year-old, who battled with health problems for years, turned the tables around in only 12 months, winning three of the past five Grand Slam championships as the second seed behind Nadal.
Barring another unfortunate injury, Federer may be on pace to win even more championships in the coming tournaments.
