Editing Roger Federer (section)

====2006: Career-best season====
{{Main|2006 Roger Federer tennis season}}
The 2006 season was statistically the best season of Federer's career. In November 2011, Stephen Tignor, chief editorial writer for [[Tennis.com]], ranked Federer's 2006 season as statistically the second-best season of all time during the Open Era, behind [[Rod Laver]]'s Grand Slam year of 1969.<ref>{{cite web|first=Steve|last=Tignor|title=Final thoughts|url=http://www.tennis.com/pro-game/2011/11/final-thoughts/45347/|publisher=[[Tennis.com]]|date=28 November 2011|access-date=1 February 2017|archive-date=29 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170629002127/http://www.tennis.com/pro-game/2011/11/final-thoughts/45347/|url-status=live}}</ref>
[[File:Amazing Roger Federer.jpg|thumb|Federer hits a forehand at the 2006 US Open, where he became the first man in history to achieve the Wimbledon-US Open double for three consecutive seasons.]]
Federer won 12 singles titles (the most of any player since Thomas Muster in 1995 and John McEnroe in 1984) and had a match record of 92–5 (the most wins since Ivan Lendl in 1982). Federer reached the finals in an astounding 16 of the 17 tournaments he entered during the season.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|last=VAVEL.com|date=28 December 2015|title=Greatest Seasons: Roger Federer 2006|url=https://www.vavel.com/en-us/tennis-usa/2015/12/28/583678-greatest-seasons-roger-federer-2006.html|access-date=7 June 2020|website=VAVEL|archive-date=7 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200607215138/https://www.vavel.com/en-us/tennis-usa/2015/12/28/583678-greatest-seasons-roger-federer-2006.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 2006, Federer won three Grand Slam singles titles and reached the final of the other, with the only loss coming against Nadal in the [[2006 French Open – Men's singles|French Open]].<ref name=":2" /> This was Federer and Nadal's first meeting in a Grand Slam final. He was the first man to reach all four finals in a calendar year since Rod Laver in 1969. Federer defeated Nadal in the [[2006 Wimbledon Championships – Men's singles|Wimbledon Championships]] final. In the [[2006 Australian Open – Men's singles|Australian Open]], Federer defeated [[Marcos Baghdatis]],<ref name="RF2006">{{cite web|title=Roger Federer – 2006 Singles Playing Activity|url=http://www.atpworldtour.com/Tennis/Players/Top-Players/Roger-Federer.aspx?t=pa&y=2006&m=s&e=0|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120209225833/http://www.atpworldtour.com/Tennis/Players/Top-Players/Roger-Federer.aspx?t=pa&y=2006&m=s&e=0|archive-date=9 February 2012|access-date=8 December 2014|publisher=[[ATP World Tour]]}}</ref> and at the [[2006 US Open – Men's singles|US Open]], Federer defeated 2003 champion Roddick.<ref name=":2" /> In addition, Federer reached six Masters finals, winning four on hard surfaces and losing two on clay to Nadal. Federer, however, consistently pushed Nadal to the limit on clay throughout the season taking him to fourth-set tiebreakers in Monte-Carlo and Paris, and a thrilling match in Rome that went to a deciding fifth-set tiebreaker.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Bierley|first=Steve|date=24 May 2006|title=Tennis: Nadal blocks Federer's record hunting|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2006/may/25/tennis.frenchopen2006|access-date=7 June 2020|issn=0261-3077|archive-date=21 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180421031659/https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2006/may/25/tennis.frenchopen2006|url-status=live}}</ref>

Federer won one ATP 500 series event in Tokyo and captured the year-end championships for the third time in his career, again finishing the year as world No. 1.<ref name=RF2006/> Federer only lost to two players during 2006, to Nadal four times in finals, and to 19-year-old [[Andy Murray]] in the second round of the [[2006 Cincinnati Masters]], in what was Federer's only defeat before the final of a tournament that year.<ref>{{Cite web|title=August 16, 2006: Murray snaps Federer's 55-match winning streak at..|url=https://www.tennisworldusa.org/tennis/news/ATP_Tennis/46423/august-16-2006-murray-snaps-federer-s-55match-winning-streak-at/|access-date=7 June 2020|website=Tennis World USA|date=16 August 2017|archive-date=7 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200607215137/https://www.tennisworldusa.org/tennis/news/ATP_Tennis/46423/august-16-2006-murray-snaps-federer-s-55match-winning-streak-at/|url-status=live}}</ref> Federer finished the season on a 29-match winning streak, as well as winning 48 of his last 49 matches after the French Open.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Why Roger Federer's 2006 season beats Novak Djokovic's 2015 season|date=4 March 2020|url=https://www.sportskeeda.com/tennis/why-roger-federer-s-2006-season-beats-novak-djokovic-s-2015-season|access-date=10 November 2020|archive-date=27 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210527113959/https://www.sportskeeda.com/tennis/why-roger-federer-s-2006-season-beats-novak-djokovic-s-2015-season|url-status=live}}</ref>

Near the end of the season, he won his hometown tournament, the [[Swiss Indoors]] in Basel, Switzerland for the first time, having finished runner up in 2000 and 2001, and missing the tournament in 2004 and 2005 due to injuries.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Basel 2006: Roger Federer wins first title at home to start the supremacy|url=https://www.tennisworldusa.org/tennis/news/Roger_Federer/62317/basel-2006-roger-federer-wins-first-title-at-home-to-start-the-supremacy/|access-date=7 June 2020|website=Tennis World USA|date=30 October 2018|archive-date=7 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200807042915/https://www.tennisworldusa.org/tennis/news/Roger_Federer/62317/basel-2006-roger-federer-wins-first-title-at-home-to-start-the-supremacy/|url-status=live}}</ref>