What No.1 Means for Federer—Nathan’s Blog

Written by: Staff on 18th December 2011

BNP Paribas 2011 Masters Tennis Tournament

What No.1 Means for Federer—Nathan’s Blog

YEARENDER 2011 NOVEMBER
Roger Federer of Switzerland returns the ball to Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic during their semi final match at the BNP Paribas 2011 Masters Tennis tournament in Paris, France, 12 November 2011. EPA/HORACIO VILLALOBOS |

By: Nathan Cuny

With Federer’s win at the ATP world tour finals many are wondering whether Federer can take the No.1 spot in 2012. He begins 2012 a long shot away from the No.1 spot, being 5,460 points behind current No.1 Novak Djokovic. But with such a strong finish to the 2011 season who’s to say Federer can’t and won’t.

So much talk about Federer’s hunt for No.1 stems around the fact that back in June of 2010 he was one week away from matching Pete Sampras’ record when Nadal took the spot for the second time. Federer has a cumulated total of 285 weeks at number one and would need two more weeks to beat Sampras’ cumulative 286 week record. Federer falls short of Sampras’ 6 year-end-No.1’s by one year as well.

Even with such goals in sight Federer’s career is already astounding. Federer holds the record for most major titles, 30 Masters 1000 finals, and here’s a whopper—over $66 million in career prize money.

Currently at No.3 Federer has to overcome two extremely strong players, Nadal and Djokovic to become No.1 once again. Federer has beaten Nadal and Djokovic many times, but they have likewise beaten Federer. In an interview about his hunt for No.1 Federer stated, “Well, that’s a long way to go, but who knows? One day maybe I’ll get there. I had to just kind of ignore it at the moment because I know that Novak with his unbelievable year has kind of put that very far from me, but then again, all of the sudden you play well and you win 17 matches in a row and you’re back where you at least feel if you win a Slam or something, you’re right in the conversation again, so that’s interesting and that excites me.”

The 3000 points Federer claimed by winning the Swiss Indoors Basel, the BNP Paribas Masters, and the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals will stay on his 52-week ranking until much later in the 2012 season. With the Australian Open grand slam opening the 2012 season so close by, winning the tournament would add an extra 2000 points to the 8,170 he’ bringing into 2012 with him. Theoretically If Federer wins the Australian Open, wins the ATP 500 event in Dubai, followed by back-to-back wins at three Master’s 1000 tournaments—Indian Wells, Miami, and Madrid, with a short stop at the ATP 250 tournament in Belgrade, Federer could be No.1 again after the start of May.

Topics: Atp, djokovic, Federer, nadal