Roger Federer has won over 100 ATP titles in his career but shockingly, has never won the Italian Open. The 20-time Grand Slam champion did make it to 4 finals in Rome but lost all of them and it made him miss out on a whopping $1.11 million, despite earning a little more than a million from it.
Federer reached his first finals in Rome in 2003. But he was pitted against Felix Mantilla. Suffering a 5-7, 2-6, 6-7 loss, Federer only received $200,000 in prize money.
In his next two finals, in 2006 and 2013, Roger Federer came up against Rafael Nadal and both the results went in favor of the Spaniard. While the first bout was a five-set thriller, the second tie was a rather one-sided affair for the King of Clay.
While Rafael Nadal received $434,860 for the 2006 win, Roger Federer had to settle for half of that amount, i.e. $217,430. By 2013, the prize money of the competition increased significantly. So Nadal bagged $644,113, while Federer took home $315,830.
Merely two years later, Federer had an unexpected run to the final. But then, he was up against the then World No.1 and in-form Novak Djokovic and lost in straight sets. The Swiss star was awarded with $352,508 in prize money.
Overall, Federer earned $1,085,768 from his four runner-up finishes in Rome. However, the winners cumulatively got $2,197,837 for these four finals, almost double what he received. Hence, the Basel native missed out on an incredible $1,112,069.
Roger Federer Poked Fun at His Lack of Italian Open Titles
Roger Federer had a career that he would be quite proud of – winning 20 Grand Slams, 103 ATP titles, and being the World No.1 for 310 weeks. Hence, he has never been too worked up about not winning at the Italian Open even once.
In fact, the GOAT contender even made fun of himself in his recent social media activity. Federer uploaded a series of photos from Rome – was seen eating pasta, sightseeing, and hitting the courts – and captioned the post in which he targeted Rafael Nadal – “Finally won Rome”.
(Note: All figures have been taken from Perfect Tennis)
