World number two Roger Federer said that it is not his priority “right now” to reclaim the top ranking but said that in order for this to happen he needs to start winning matches and earn titles. Earlier this year, his team outlined his schedule for 2013 and he will be participating in noticeably lesser tournaments than before. Due to his age, Federer is eligible to skip mandatory events. One tournament he skipped this year was the Miami Masters which took place last month.
Last year, Federer broke new grounds after overtaking Pete Sampras with the most number of weeks in the top ranking. Federer held the number one ranking for 17 weeks after winning the Wimbledon 2012 tournament and set an all-time record of 302 weeks as number one.
“It’s not the goal right now. [But] down the stretch, hopefully [I can do it] again,” said Federer. “For that, I need to start winning matches and tournaments and so forth. I’m focused right now on making sure that my return to the Tour is a strong one starting here in Madrid. Then we’ll see how successful I’ve been once the US Open is over.”
