Àlex Corretja i Verdegay (Catalan pronunciation: [ˈaləks kuˈrɛdʒə]) (born 11 April 1974, in Barcelona, Spain) is a former professional tennis player from Spain. During his career, he finished runner-up twice at the French Open (in 1998 and 2001). He won the ATP Tour World Championships in 1998 and reached his career-high singles ranking of World No. 2 in 1999. He also played a key role in helping Spain win its first-ever Davis Cup title in 2000. He became a temporary coach of British tennis player Andy Murray in April 2008 for the duration of the clay-court season and resumed the role in 2009. On 29 March 2011, Corretja and Murray parted company on a mutual agreement.

Corretja first came to the tennis world's attention as a promising junior player who won the Orange Bowl 16s title in 1990. He turned professional in 1991 and won his first top-level singles title in 1994 at Buenos Aires. His first doubles title came in 1995 at Palermo.

In 1996, Corretja faced Pete Sampras in an epic five-set quarterfinal match at the US Open. Pete Sampras threw up in the fifth set tiebreak, where Corretja held a match point later on, but he eventually lost to Sampras in 4 hours and 9 minutes 6–7, 7–5, 7–5, 4–6, 6–7.

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.