Arguably the greatest tennis player in history, Roger Federer's sixth Wimbledon victory in July 2009 surpassed Pete Sampras' record of 14 Grand Slams to break yet another record.

Federer made his tour debut in 1997, reaching the quarter-finals of his second tournament in Toulouse, before becoming the youngest player to break into the top 100 the following year. At the 2000 Olympics in Sydney he lost out on a bronze medal to Arnaud Di Pasquale.

He won his first tour title in Milan in February 2001, in the fourth round at Wimbledon, he ended Pete Sampras' 31-match unbeaten run at SW19, beating the former world number one 7-5 in the fifth set.

After losing his coach Peter Carter in a car crash in South Africa in 2002, he won his first Grand Slam at Wimbledon, as well as six other titles in 2003, but it was 2004 that was to be Federer's year. He got his season off to the best possible start, dropping just two sets on route to the final at the Australian Open, before beating Marat Safin to take him to the top the world rankings for the first time.

He went on to defend his Wimbledon title, and beat Lleyton Hewitt to to win the US Open final and become the first man since Mats Wilander in 1988 to win three Grand Slams in a year, topped off with an Olympic gold medal in Athens.

For the next three-and-a-half years Federer continued to dominate the men's game, successfully defending his Wimbledon title four times, winning two further US Open titles and the Australian Open in 2007. From his second grand slam victory in Melbourne in January 2004, Federer occupied the top of the rankings for over four years, a record 237 weeks, before he was knocked off by rival Rafael Nadal in August 2008.

After a tough 2008 in which he surrendered his Wimbledon title after five consecutive years, and lost his No. 1 status, he came back to defend his US Open title, beating Andy Murray in the final. The following year, he finally got his hands on the one title that still eluded him - the French Open, after being defeated in the final three years running.

The 2009 French Open title equalled Pete Sampras' record of 14 career Grand Slams, and he went on to win Wimbledon for the sixth time in seven yearsto set a new record. Not content there, he produced a stunning display to beat an in-form Andy Murray in January 2010 to win the Australian Open for the fourth time, and take his tally to 16 slams.

However, he suffered a slump in form, and defeat to Robin Soderling in the French Open quarter-finals ended his impressive run of 23 straight grand slam semi-finals, which saw him lose his No. 1 status to newly crowned champion Nadal.

Defending his Wimbledon title, Federer slipped to a second consecutive quarter-final defeat in a major, this time to eventual finalist Tomas Berdych, and failed to reach the final at the All England Club for the first time since 2002. The result saw him leapfrogged in the world rankings by Novak Djokovic, as he slipped to No. 3 in the world rankings for the first time since November 2003.

However titles in Cincinnati, Stockholm and Basel helped put his season back on track, and he topped off an impressive run-in with victory at the ATP World Tour Finals in London, and after an impressive start to 2012 he returned to world No. 1 with victory over Murray to secure his seventh Wimbedon title.

Returning to the All England Club, he was red-hot favourite to get his hands on an elusive Olympic gold singles medal at London 2012, but he was beaten in the final by home favourite Murray.

Career high
For a man who has quite literally won everything there is to win, it is hard to single out one moment. But winning the French Open at the tenth attempt, after three consecutive final appearances to complete his career Grand Slam made him just the the sixth man in history to do so.

Career low
After losing to clay-court specialist Nadal in the French Open final for the third year running, the pair were set for a rematch on Federer's favoured surface in the final at Wimbledon in 2008. Nadal won 6-4 6-4 6-7 6-7 9-7 in an epic encounter lasting nearly five hours, the longest Wimbledon final in history, which was recently voted as one of the greatest sporting moments of the decade. Federer's five-year dominance at Wimbledon came to an end, and his four-year stint as world number one ended not long after.

Quotes
"Roger isn't playing tennis for the limelight, for the pat on the back and for the medal at the end of the race. He plays tennis because he loves tennis, and he is competitive when he gets out there on the court, but I don't think he's doing it for the praise and to be called the greatest. All he wants to do is get out there and play tennis, and that's what I love about Roger, that you can see he loves the game." Pete Sampras

"I want to enjoy the game. I don't want to feel the burden of living up to expectations just because the media are crazy about records. I love them, too, but I don't look at a record and say: 'I want to beat this guy to be better'. That's not the point. For me this will calm things down, and maybe I can relax a bit more." After winning his 15th Grand Slam title

Trivia
After winning his sixth Wimbledon title in July 2009, Federer was presented with the net from Centre Court.