Roger Federer will have a better ranking than 2017 even after missing rest of 2020 season

Roger Federer announced last week that he wouldn't be returning to the court this year as he needed more time to recover from his injury. The Swiss maestro experienced a setback during his rehab, and he confirmed that he intends to come back to the sport at the start of 2021.

The entire tennis universe knows that this is not the first time Roger Federer has taken such a long break from the court. Three years ago, in 2016, his back problems compelled him to skip nearly six months - including some major tournaments. That break hurt his position in the ATP rankings big time; he lost his place in the top 3 and slid all the way down to No. 17 by the start of the 2017 season.

Since Federer will skip two Grand Slams this year, the fans have been speculating about the impact that the break will have on his ATP rank. But as it turns out, the damage won't be as large as it was in 2016.

The 2020 break will not hurt Roger Federer's ranking like the 2016 one did

Roger Federer will lose over 1000 points in the clay season

The coronavirus pandemic forced the organizers to cancel the 2020 edition of Wimbledon. In fact, the entire grass swing was called off, meaning that the Swiss' favorite part of the season was gone in a puff of smoke.

The solace for Roger Federer is that he was the runner-up at a Major tournament that's been cancelled. Ordinarily he would've lost 1,200 points if he had skipped Wimbledon due to injury; however, since the tournament isn't taking place at all, those points will now remain unaffected.

Besides, he had even gained 500 points for winning the competition in Halle last year. Those points will also stay in his tally until 2021.

Next, Roger Federer will keep the points he received for being a runner-up at the Indian Wells tourney and the 1,000 points for winning the Miami Masters in 2019. Both the American competitions did not take place this year.

Talking about the tournaments where Roger Federer will drop some points, he will suffer the most significant loss for skipping the French Open. The former World No.1 player reached the semifinals of the tourney last year and earned 720 points. And if the US Open happens this year, Federer will drop a further 360 points.

Besides, he will lose 540 points if the Madrid Masters, Shanghai Open and the Rome Masters take place in the coming months. Skipping the Cincinnati Masters would only cost him 90 points. However, the defending champion of the Basel tournament would drop 500 points for not appearing in the competition.

Lastly, not playing in the ATP Finals will lead to a deduction of 400 points from his tally.

Roger Federer unlikely to drop out of top 10

Roger Federer dropped to the 17th rank in 2017

Roger Federer will lose 2,610 out of the 6,630 points he has right now by not competing in the rest of 2020. That means he will still have 4,020 points in the bag.

The Swiss player is at the fourth position on the rankings right now. Daniil Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexander Zverev all have a chance to overtake Federer. However, the probability that Federer falls out of the Top 10 is very low.

The 10th-placed David Goffin has only 2,555 points. So it is unlikely that any player apart from the names mentioned above would overtake Federer on the ranking charts. That all but confirms that the legendary player's rank will not receive a negative impact as massive as 2017.