Former world No.1 left his heart in SW19

Roger Federer has admited that winning Wimbledon in 2009 is more important to him than regaining his No.1 world ranking from Rafael Nadal:

“While I would also love to beat Pete Sampras’s Grand Slam record of 14 titles, and also to regain my No. 1 ranking, I place winning another Wimbledon title above all else,” he said.

The way things are going, with several young guns - Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic etc. - snapping at his heels, there’s surely much more chance of Federer winning Wimbledon than getting the top spot back.

The Swiss legend could even slip to No.3 in the ATP rankings in 2009. He’s 1730 ranking points behind Nadal, but only 10 ranking points ahead of Djokovic (the Serb received a healthy boost on the back of his win in the Masters Cup).

All of which makes Rog’s statement about Wimbledon seem like a shrewd example of expectation management.