The Swiss tennis player could return to the first place of the ATP if he advances to the semifinals of Rotterdam

Since October 29, 2012, Roger Federer is not in the first spot of the ATP. However, after his brilliant participation in the Austrialian Open, the Swiss reaches 155 points at the top of the ranking.

The panorama opens after the positive participation by Federer in the InDoor and hard track of Rotterdam in Dutch territory, as announced on its website.

In this opportunity the now number two of the world, will fight alone to snatch the first place to Rafael Nadal, due to the injury of Balearic in Melbourne, where he suffered a lesion of grade 1 in the psoas-iliac of his right leg. It is expected that the Spanish will not reappear on the courts until the ATP 500 of Acapulco, from February 26 to March 3.

Federer's score is 155 points below Nadal, which means that to overcome it he must reach the semifinals of the Dutch tournament, which would give a total of 180 points. It should be noted that Nadal is at the top of the ranking since August 21, position which he has maintained for 25 weeks.

At the moment, the real situation regarding the scores is from 9,760 to 9,605 points. However, the task will not be easy for the Swiss, because in the same competition the assistance of Stan Wawrinka, Grigor Dimitrov, Alexander Zverev, and David Goffin, among others, is confirmed.

One aspect to note is that Roger Federer was not on the list of confirmed tournament, but will enter the box after a special invitation and hopes to reach the instances of semifinals, as he has done five times (2001, 2003, 2005 and 2012).

Regarding his participation Federer reported on his website: "I remember playing for the first time in Rotterdam in 1999, it was one of the first tournaments where I had the opportunity to play at the highest level. I like being able to participate in the celebrations of this edition".

In case of achieving his mission, the Swiss tennis player would add another record in his list after becoming the number one ATP with greater age, beating the American Andre Agassi, who is 33 years and 4 months, while Federer could recover the leadership, who is 36 years, 6 months and 11 days.

It is important to note that, although Federer has been dosing his participation in minor tournaments, he got this time to go after the first place of the rankin ATP, disputing a tournament where he has a record of 23 wins and 6 losses. In addition, he has been crowned twice in 2005 and 2012 and a runner-up in 2001.

In the racquet of the Swiss tennis player is the possibility of adding a new achievement in his palmares that has led him to consecrate as the hierarch with more number of weeks in number one with 302 and as the most continuous with 237 weeks consecutive at the top of the ATP.

Latin American Post | Julio Abella

Translated from "¡Federer a la carga por el 1!"