Roger Federer beats Robin Haase to become oldest world No1 in history

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  • Roger Federer has become the oldest world No. 1 in history after defeating Robin Haase to reach the semi-finals of the ABN Amro World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam on Friday night.

    The 36-year-old, who had to make it to the last four in the Netherlands to guarantee he would have enough points to usurp current top dog Rafael Nadal, will officially return to top spot for the first time since October 2012 (the longest gap in the record books) when new ATP World Tour rankings are released on Monday.

    Federer has now replaced Andre Agassi as the eldest statesman to accomplish the feat, with the American legend having held the record since 2003 when he was number one aged 33 years and 131 days.

    Remarkably, the 20-time Grand Slam champion’s fairytale climb back to the summit of world tennis comes 14 years and 17 days to the month since he first got there.

    The Swiss, of course, is no stranger to leading the men’s game having previously held the No. 1 berth for a record 302 weeks throughout his career, with 237 of those being consecutive in a staggering run which started in February 2004 and lasted until August 2008.

    Federer, a twice winner in Rotterdam, was granted a wildcard into the event last week by former Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek after he made a last-minute decision to chase the milestone following his exertions in Melbourne.

    Indeed, the fact injury-stricken Nadal is not due to play until Acapulco at the end of the month, gave the legendary star a small window of opportunity to have a crack at the milestone and he was clearly right to chance his arm.

    The Swiss was made to work hard for it on Friday though and lost the first set 6-4, before rolling over the 30-year-old 6-1 in just 19 minutes to level it up. He then saw off the journeyman Dutchman, who appeared to be suffering from sickness, 6-1 in the decider.

    Federer, who is now just two wins away from his 97th career title, was visibly emotional after shaking hands at the net with his opponent.

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