Did you know tennis great Roger Federer faced 350 different players during his professional career?
Of the 350 players that the Swiss Maestro played against, only 28 have a winning head-to-head record against him and his two big rivals Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal feature on the list.
Sixteen of the 28 players with a winning record against Federer faced him only once so it would be unfair to include them on the list.
Instead, we have compiled a list of players with a winning record against Federer who have faced the 22-time Grand Slam winner at least twice during their careers.
1. Novak Djokovic – 27-23
Roger Federer won only 46% of his matches against Novak Djokovic, who was exceptional against the Swiss great during the latter stages of his career.
Seventeen of their matches came at Grand Slams with Djokovic winning 11 of those, including the 2019 Wimbledon final and their last-ever clash in the semi-final of the 2020 Australian Open.
2. Rafael Nadal – 24-16
Unlike the Federer-Djokovic rivalry where the former dominated at the beginning, it was the young Nadal who always seemed to have the upper hand over Federer from the word go.
Nadal was 6-1 up early on and also had an 18-9 and 23-10 advantage at some point. Federer did reduce the deficit to 15-23, but he never really got close to leading the H2H.
3. Dominic Thiem – 5-2
After Djokovic and Nadal, Thiem won the most matches against Federer and three of the five victories came in his last three matches against the Swiss.
Federer won their first-ever encounter in Brisbane in 2016, but the Austrian then won the next two before Federer won at the ATP Finals again in 2018.
However, Thiem notched up wins in Indian Wells (2019), Madrid (2019) and the ATP Finals (2019) for a pretty dominant record against the Swiss.
4. Alexander Zverev – 4-3
Alexander Zverev has won 60% of his matches against Roger Federer with his four wins coming at Halle (2016), Canada (2017), ATP Finals (2018) and the Shanghai Masters (2019).
Federer, meanwhile, claimed wins in Rome (2016), Halle (2017) and the ATP Finals (2017).
5. Yevgeny Kafelnikov – 4-2
To be fair to Federer, most of his clashes against former world No 1 Yevgeny Kafelnikov came at the start of his career.
Russian Kafelnikov won their first three matches in Rotterdam (1999), Wimbledon (2000) and Shanghai (2001) before Federer got on the scoreboard with a win in Milan (2001). Kafelnikov then won again Marseille (2001) before Federer had the last laugh with victory in the Davis Cup in 2002.
6. Pat Rafter – 3-0
Pat Rafter and Franco Squillari (see more below) are the only players to have never lost against Federer having played more than one match.
Australian Rafter won at Roland Garros in 1999, the Miami Open in 2001 and the Halle Open in 2001.
7. Tomas Enqvist – 3-1
Swede Tomas Enqvist opened a 3-0 head-to-head lead over Federer as he won in Adelaide (2000), Basel (2000) and Indian Wells (2002).
Federer’s only win against the former world No 4 came in Rotterdam in 2003.
8. Alex Corretja – 3-2
All three of Alex Corretja’s wins over Federer came on clay as the Spaniard won at Roland Garros and Gstaad in 2000, and again at Roland Garros in 2001.
Federer’s wins came on the hard courts in Rotterdam (2001) and Madrid 2003.
9. Franco Squillari – 2-0
Franco Squillari had a career-high ranking of No 11, but he has a 2-0 record against the great Roger Federer and the Swiss failed to win any sets against the Argentine.
Squillari won 6-3, 6-4 at the Hamburg Masters in 2001 and 6-2, 6-3 at the Sydney International in 2003.
10. Gustavo Kuerten – 2-1
Roger Federer won his first-ever encounter against Brazilian legend Gustavo Kuerten on the clay in Hamburg in 2002, but Guga hit back with wins at the Indian Wells Masters in 2003 and Roland Garros in 2004.
11. Wayne Ferreira – 2-1
South African Wayne Ferreira reached a career-high No 5 in the rankings in the mid-90s and he was in the latter stages of his career when he faced Federer.
The Swiss won in straight sets in Sydney in 2001 before Ferreira hit back with a two-set win at the Rome Masters and a three-set win in Stuttgart with both wins also coming in 2001.
12. Dominik Hrbaty 2-1
Former world No 12 Dominik Hrbaty beat Federer in three sets at the Paris Masters in November 2000 and then made it 2-0 in his H2H against the Swiss at the Cincinnati Masters 2004.
Federer got the final win of their mini-rivalry as he was victorious at Wimbledon in 2008.
Of the 12, Djokovic, Nadal, Thiem and Zverev are still active.
In case you were wondering, the 16 players with one win over Federer are Sergi Bruguera, Andrei Medvedev, Andrey Rublev, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Jan Siemerink, Andrea Gaudenzi, Francisco Clavet, Byron Black, Pablo Andujar, Kenneth Carlsen, Thanasi Kokkinakis, Evgeny Donskoy, Markus Hantschk, Lucas Arnold Ker, James Sekulov and Christophe Van Garsse.
Of the 16 players with one win against Federer, only Rublev, Auger-Aliassime and Kokkinakis are still active.
