Roger Federer Pursues the No. 1 Ranking Again. Why Not?

Roger Federer practicing in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, at the ABN Amro World Tennis Tournament, his first event since winning the Australian Open last month.It is a scenario that would have seemed far-fetched at the start of the 2017 season, when Roger Federer had just returned from a six-month injury layoff without having won a major in nearly five years.

But the tennis pendulum has been swinging so wildly of late that it is practically unhinged.

Federer, at 36 years old, finds himself in the Dutch port of Rotterdam, just three rungs from the top of the tennis ladder with no major champions blocking his ascent.

Reconquering the No. 1 ranking was not his primary goal when he took his growing…