Roger Federer vowed to be No.1 again as the Swiss Maestro recovers from a knee injury suffered in January.
Federer is in a bid to extend his all-time record of Grand Slam titles this season, but apparently, it is not the only goal the Swiss has in mind. During a short interview of the 34-year-old on the red carpet of the 2016 Oscars in Los Angeles, Federer took a shot of a tequila before saying, "getting back to number one, it starts like that!"
However, Federer is arguably not yet in the shape to dethrone world No. 1 Novak Djokovic. The 17-time Grand Slam winner is still recovering from a knee surgery that repaired a torn left meniscus suffered a day after losing to Djokovic at the Australian Open.
It is also unlikely the Swiss would top Djokovic any time soon, considering the Serb's domination of the competition in the past two seasons. Moreover, Federer have less opportunities to prepare for the bigger events due to his injury, missing out on quality matches leading up to this year's French Open.
As of Feb. 29, Federer still trailing behind Djokovic and Andy Murray at the Emirates ATP world rankings. The Swiss is just 470 points from moving back to the second spot of the leaderboard, but has a lot of catching up to do in order to unseat Djokovic, who currently has 16,580 points, almost half of Federer's 8295 points.
This means Federer would have to win all the tournaments he plan to join, including all the remaining Grand Slam events, and hopes Djokovic would not reach the final round in all of the Serb's competition to be world No. 1 again. But with "Djoker" on track for a calendar Grand Slam sweep this season, Federer's chances to get back atop the rankings are slim to none.
Meanwhile, Federer was initially set to play at Indian Wells, but the world No. 3 delayed his return to the hard court and will instead be back at the Monte Carlo-Rolex Masters in April.
As for Djokovic, his next competition will be at the Davis Cup first round tie, where he will play for Serbia to take on Kazakhstan. However, an eye problem suffered at Dubai Tennis Championships could force Djokovic to skip the tournament.
"My match record is the least of my thoughts at this moment," Djokovic said, reports ESPN. "I just hope that this problem will fade away in the next few days."
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