 Federer has been regarded by many <unk> , coaches , and past and present players as the greatest tennis player of all time . He dominated the game at his peak and has more Grand Slam tournament titles ( 17 ) than any other men 's singles player . He is also the first men 's singles player to have reached 10 consecutive Grand Slam tournament finals and a total of 27 Grand Slam finals . He spent the most amount of time in the Open Era at the top of the ATP Rankings ( 302 weeks ) . He also holds the record for the most titles ( 6 ) at the year @-@ end tournament , where only the year @-@ end 8 highest @-@ ranked players participate . Federer has been ranked among the top 8 players in the world continuously since 14 October 2002 
