Seems like Federer is set to take his place back from Djokovic as tennis number 1

After winning his maiden Shanghai Masters title on Sunday, Roger Federer remains hopeful of regaining the world number one ranking at the end of the year.

The 33-year-old Federer had a year to forget in 2013, winning just one tournament and dropping down to number eight on the world rankings, the lowest in more than a decade.

However, since the start of the year under the tutelage of former world number one Stefan Edberg, the Swiss legend has undergone a remarkable turnaround and has shot up the rankings once more.

After gaining a 1000 ATP points from the victory in the Chinese capital, Federer is now back up to second within 1000 points of Novak Djokovic, whom he beat in the semi-finals in Shanghai.

With 3000 ATP points still on offer in the three events that that remain, it is possible for Federer to usurp the Serbian Wimbledon champion, although the Swiss admitted that he is just looking forward to ending the year on a high.

"I think this year everything is going really well," he told the official ATP website.

"I have still so many highlights to look forward to for the end of the season, which is very nice. Usually everything slows down at the end of the season. Not for me this time.

"What does it need for world number one? I'm not quite sure. I need to look into that, how realistic it is or not. I mean, it's in Novak's racquet. He dictates. But nevertheless, I'm still going to be playing and hopefully playing well again."

World number three Rafael Nadal still has a mathematical chance to regain the number one ranking he had at the beginning of the year and trails Djokovic by 2,265 points.

Both Federer and Nadal are scheduled to take part in the Swiss Indoors Basel next week, where Federer lost in the final to Juan Martin del Potro in the last two tournaments in the Swiss capital and 500 points will be on offer.

Should the winner of the Tour finals go undefeated there, 1500 points could be awarded.

Djokovic is the two-time defending champion there, while Federer has won the title six times - the last time being in 2011

Thereafter, Djokovic will join then for the Paris Masters - another 1000-pointer - before heading off to the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals