- published: 26 Mar 2015
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Lindt & Sprüngli AG, more commonly known as Lindt, is a luxury Swiss chocolate and confectionery company.
The origins of the company date back to 1845. David Sprüngli-Schwarz and his son, Rudolf Sprüngli-Ammann owned a small confectionery shop in the old town of Zurich, to which two years later a small factory was added to produce chocolate in solid form.
With the retirement of Rudolf Sprüngli-Ammann in 1892, the business was divided between his two sons. The younger, David Robert, received two confectionery stores that became known under the name Confiserie Sprüngli. The elder brother, Johann Rudolf, received the chocolate factory. To raise the necessary finance for his expansion plans, Johann Rudolf converted in 1899 his private company into "Chocolat Sprüngli AG". In that same year, he acquired the chocolate factory of Rodolphe Lindt in Bern and the company changed its name to Aktiengesellschaft Vereinigte Berner und Züricher Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli (United Bern and Zurich Lindt & Sprungli Chocolate Factory Ltd.).
Roger Federer (German pronunciation: [ˈfeːdəʁɐ]) (born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss professional tennis player who held the ATP No. 1 position for a record 237 consecutive weeks from 2 February 2004 to 18 August 2008. Federer has occupied the #1 ranking for 285 overall weeks, one week short of the record 286 weeks held by Pete Sampras. As of 28 May 2012, he is ranked World No. 3. Federer has won a men's record 16 Grand Slam singles titles. He is one of seven male players to capture the career Grand Slam and one of three (with Andre Agassi and Rafael Nadal) to do so on three different surfaces (clay, grass, and hard courts). He is the only male player in tennis history to have reached the title match of each Grand Slam tournament at least five times and also the final at each of the nine ATP Masters 1000 Tournaments. Many sports analysts, tennis critics, and former and current players consider Federer to be the greatest tennis player of all time.
Federer has appeared in an unprecedented 23 career Grand Slam tournament finals, including a men's record ten in a row, and appeared in 18 of 19 finals from the 2005 Wimbledon Championships through the 2010 Australian Open, the lone exception being the 2008 Australian Open. He holds the record of reaching the semifinals or better of 23 consecutive Grand Slam tournaments over five and a half years, from the 2004 Wimbledon Championships through the 2010 Australian Open. At the 2012 Australian Open, he reached a record 31st consecutive Grand Slam quarterfinal. During the course of his run at the 2012 French Open in Roland Garros, Federer eclipsed Jimmy Connors long standing record of 233 match wins in Grand Slam tournaments when he defeated Adrian Ungur in a second round match.