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Roger Federer leads the list of nominees announced Wednesday for the International Tennis Hall of Fame’s class of 2026. He was the first man to win 20 Grand Slam singles titles and ushered in an era of unprecedented greatness with younger rivals Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.

With a terrific forehand and serve, an attacking, all-court style, and footwork that helped make everything seem so effortless, Federer won 103 trophies and 1,251 matches in singles, totals surpassed among men only by Jimmy Connors in the Open era, which began in 1968.

Federer finished five seasons at No. 1 in the ATP rankings, spent a record 237 consecutive weeks in that spot, led Switzerland to the 2014 Davis Cup title and teamed with Stan Wawrinka to claim a doubles gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

At the height of his powers, Federer reached a record 10 consecutive Grand Slam finals from 2005 to 2007, capturing eight titles in that span. He extended that dominance by making 18 of 19 major finals into 2010. There also were streaks of 36 quarterfinals in a row and 23 straight semifinals.

Federer, an ambassador for the game who often spoke in English, French and Swiss German at news conferences, played his last match at Wimbledon in 2021. He was a month shy of 40 at the time.

2026 International Tennis HOF Nominees

Roger FedererSvetlana KuznetsovaJuan Martin del PotroMary Carillo*Marshall Happer** Contributor category

His retirement announcement didn’t come until the following year, and he bid farewell with an appearance alongside Nadal in doubles at the Laver Cup, an event his management company founded.

Federer is joined on the ballot in the Hall’s player category by two-time major singles champion Svetlana Kuznetsova and 2009 US Open winner Juan Martin del Potro. There are two nominees in the contributor category: TV announcer Mary Carillo and administrator Marshall Happer.

The inductees will be announced in November.

Federer is among eight men with at least one singles trophy from each of the sport’s four most important events, winning eight at Wimbledon, six at the Australian Open, five at the US Open and one at the French Open. He completed the career Grand Slam at Roland-Garros in 2009.

His first major championship came at the All England Club in 2003, and he broke Pete Sampras’ then-record for a man of 14 Slam titles by winning Wimbledon in 2009, defeating Andy Roddick 16-14 in the fifth set of the final.

Eventually, Federer was overtaken in the Grand Slam standings by Nadal, who retired last year at age 38 with 22, and Djokovic, who is still active at 38 with 24.

“I always say it’s wonderful to be part of that selective group,” Federer told The Associated Press in 2021. “How can you compare? What’s better? To win when you’re old or when you’re young? I have no idea, you know. Is it better to win on clay or grass? Don’t know. Is it better to have super dominant years or come back from injury? I don’t know. It really is impossible to grasp.”

Federer’s run of five consecutive US Opens — no man has won two in a row there since — ended in the 2009 final with a five-set loss to del Potro. At the time, del Potro was not quite 21 and seemed destined for an elite career thanks in part to his booming forehand, but a series of wrist and knee injuries derailed the 6-foot-6 Argentine.

He ended up with 22 tour-level titles and a career-high ranking of No. 3 while reaching one other Grand Slam final, finishing as the runner-up to Djokovic at the 2018 US Open. Del Potro earned a silver medal at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and helped Argentina win the Davis Cup that year. His last appearance at a major tournament was a fourth-round run at the 2019 French Open.

Kuznetsova won major trophies in singles at the 2004 US Open and 2009 French Open and in doubles at the Australian Open in 2005 and 2012. She got to No. 2 in the WTA rankings in singles and No. 3 in doubles and was part of three championships with Russia in the competition now known as the Billie Jean King Cup. Kuznetsova won 18 tour-level events in singles and 16 in doubles.

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Real Madrid star Jude Bellingham is among six nominees for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year prize, alongside Luke Littler, Joe Root and Keely Hodgkinson.

Real Madrid and England midfielder Jude Bellingham has been unveiled as one of six nominees for the 2024 BBC Sports Personality of the Year prize.

The 21-year-old became a La Liga and Champions League winner with Real Madrid in the 2023-24 campaign while excelling statistically, registering 23 goals and 13 assists in 42 appearances across all competitions.

Bellingham won a plethora of individual accolades for his exceptional first season in the Spanish top flight, including the La Liga Player of the Season and the Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year award for 2024.

The former Birmingham City and Borussia Dortmund protege subsequently played a starring role in England’s run to the Euro 2024 final, scoring crucial goals against Serbia and Slovakia before netting one of the Three Lions’ five penalties in their quarter-final success over Switzerland.

Bellingham has also hit a rich vein of recent form for Carlo Ancelotti‘s team in recent weeks, scoring in each of his last five La Liga appearances, and he is aiming to become the third footballer to win the award in each of the last three years.

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Manchester United and England goalkeeper Mary Earps took home the 2023 prize after Arsenal’s Beth Mead scooped the 2022 award, but Bellingham is facing some incredibly stiff competition for the honour.

Among the other five nominees is darts phenom Luke Littler, who at 16 years of age surged to the final of the PDC World Championship at the start of the year, where he finished as runner-up to Luke Humphries.

Now 17, Littler has won 10 major honours – including the Premier League Darts and Grand Slam of Darts – and he is also on course to surpass Michael Smith‘s record of 714 180s in one season.

At the other end of the experience scale, cricketer Joe Root dethroned Sir Alastair Cook as England’s record Test run scorer a couple of months ago, hitting a personal best of 262 against Pakistan.

Prior to making history in October, Root had also beaten Cook’s record of the most Test centuries scored by an Englishman, but neither he nor Bellingham or Littler are the favourite to take home the award.

Keely Hodgkinson the outright favourite to win SPOTY

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Instead, athletics sensation Keely Hodgkinson is expected to hold the trophy aloft after storming to 800m gold at the Paris 2024 Olympics, becoming the first Briton to win a track title at the Games since Sir Mo Farah in 2016.

Hodgkinson is one of three Olympic/Paralympic stars among the nominees for the 2024 prize, a list that also includes triathlete Alex Yee, the gold medallist in the individual men’s competition and the reigning Elite world champion.

Finally, Paralympic cyclist Dame Sarah Storey is up for the award after remarkably winning Time Trial C-5 and Road Race C-5 events in Paris, taking the 47-year-old’s Games medal tally to 19 golds and 30 overall.

Should Hodgkinson take home the honour as expected, it would mark the fourth year in a row that a female athlete has been named Sports Personality of the Year after tennis star Emma Raducanu was bestowed with the prize in 2021.

Prior to Raducanu’s crowning, a male athlete had won the SPOTY trophy 14 years running, while Wales’ Geraint Thomas was the last non-English nominee to clinch the accolade in 2018.

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