Roger Federer is the all-time leader when it comes to weeks spent as the World No. 1 tennis player. He has spent a total of 302 weeks as the top-ranked player, forever ahead of Pete Sampras' mark of 286 weeks. Among active players, Novak Djokovic is the one that has the best chance to best Federer's record. The Serb has 223 weeks as the World No. 1 player and would need to spend 80 additional weeks as the top-ranked player in order to surpass Federer. However, the gap between Federer and the field may increase soon. The all-time leader in weeks spent at No.
1 has a chance to get back to the top spot over the summer hard-court season.
Wimbledon 2017 won't decide No. 1
Federer can't get the World No. 1 ranking back at Wimbledon 2017. Andy Murray's lead on top of the rankings is safe at the moment, even if Federer wins the title at the All England Club. Heading into the Wimbledon 2017 semifinals, Federer trails Murray in the rankings by roughly 2500 ranking points. That's too big of a deficit to make up in one tournament.
But with a title at Wimbledon, Federer would cut nearly 1300 points off of that lead. That would position him to overtake Murray in the weeks ahead. After all, the Scot is struggling and Federer was idle post-Wimbledon last year. With the Montreal Masters and the Cincinnati Masters upcoming, the opportunity is certainly there for Federer.
Furthermore, there is the 2017 US Open to be played before the end of the summer. Montreal, Cincinnati, and New York combine to offer 4000 ranking points to their champions. With Federer possibly only 1300 ranking points behind Murray by the end of Wimbledon, one could see how the Swiss Maestro could certainly end up top ranked soon.
Oldest player to be No. 1?
If Federer was able to get the top ranking, then he would become the oldest player to hold the No. 1 spot. Federer is almost 36 years old and, if he gets to No. 1, then he would crush Andre Agassi's record for age. The American was No. 1 at the age of 33 years.
For Federer, much depends on how the rest of Wimbledon goes for him.
Semifinalists get 720 ranking points, the runner-up gets 1200, and the winner gets 2000. If Federer should fall at Wimbledon then it would leave him a bigger chunk to go after in Montreal, Cincinnati, and the US Open.
Furthermore, there is a never-ending question regarding his health. Federer is clearly fit at the moment, but it's possible that he might need to miss time in the weeks ahead. Those considerations factored in, Federer still seems probable to get the No. 1 ranking back sometime this season. He has already duplicated his result from Wimbledon 2016 and so he has no points to defend for the balance of the season.
In protecting his lead, there is only so much that Andy Murray can do.
He did win a lot of titles during the latter half of 2016. That means he has a lot of points to defend. There are certainly other players in the mix besides Murray and Federer. Djokovic and Rafael Nadal could both take over Murray's top ranking in the weeks or months ahead still.
Furthermore, Marin Cilic is very much alive in the Wimbledon draw and he has clear potential to win the US Open as well. The race for No. 1 is certainly a close one at this point, something that has only rarely been the case in recent ATP tennis history. But since Federer has nowhere to go but up, the race actually seems to be on his racket right now more than anyone else's.
