Roger Federer: It’s Been A Better Year Than I Thought It Would Be. Returning To No. 1 Would Be Special

Following a strong 61, 76 win over Milos Raonic in his opening round robin match at the ATP Finals, Roger Federer spoke about the bounce-back season he had after a disappointing 2013 and the hunt for No. 1.

“I didn’t put any target I think on the rankings,” said Federer who still has a slim chance at finishing No. 1. “I was putting more rather a target on trying to win an amount of titles, because last year I had only won one. That was quite disappointing actually, so I was trying to get maybe three to five at least. That was the goal. I have five now. I think I made another five finals, then also now we’re in the Davis Cup final, so it’s been a very successful year. Better than I thought it was going to be.

“I figured I was going to struggle up until about March this year. Success kicked in quite quickly with Brisbane and the Australian Open. The rankings came by surprise that all of a sudden, I have a small shot at world No.1 after winning Shanghai. I mean, I’m happy it’s this way. But I think it’s highly unlikely it’s going to happen. If it does, obviously it’s great.

“But for me personally, it doesn’t really matter if it happened at the end of the year or any other week during the year, as long as you could get back to world No.1 for one more time. I think that would be very special because I’ve been there and I know how much it would mean, because winning a tournament is a one‑week thing or a two‑week thing, but getting back to world No.1 is an entirely different animal.

“I’ll try to get there, but obviously Novak is going to dictate as well what’s going to happen here.”

Federer, a six-time champion of the ATP Finals, returns tomorrow afternoon to face fellow 1-0 player Kei Nishikori in Group B action.

Federer leads all players this year with 69 match wins. He also has five ATP titles in 10 finals on the year and has won 14 matches to date against Top 10 players.