Roger Federer

Born in Switzerland in 1981, Federer was a Wimbledon ball boy before winning the junior title there in 1998 - a kid who lacked self-control until he learned to channel it. His first major came at Wimbledon in 2003 at 21, and for the next six years he was untouchable, playing in 20 of 24 major finals and winning three of the four slams multiple times over. The French Open eluded him until 2009, when he finally beat Nadal's clay kingdom and passed Sampras with his 15th major in the same summer. A knee injury and a half-year break in 2016 looked like the beginning of the end, but he came back at 35 to win three more majors, including a record eighth Wimbledon and his 20th slam in Melbourne at 36. He retired in September 2022 at the Laver Cup, by then a billionaire whose foundation had funneled millions to children in southern Africa and whose minority stake in a Swiss shoe brand had made him richer off the court than on it.