The tour is an absolute grind for all players and it could be particularly challenging for a top player with a family and kids to travel for close to 45 weeks a year.
So when a player gets a chance to stay home during a tournament, it sounds like a true blessing.
Which is one of the reasons why Roger Federer particularly enjoys competing in Dubai – a place where he has had a residence for several years and which he considers a second home.
The five-time Dubai champion has been spotted at the Aviation Club practicing hard for the past week or so and says he’s ready to get his campaign underway against Benjamin Becker tonight.
“I do spend time here for practice so it’s nice to also play the tournament here. I always feel like there’s no adjustment really needed when I come back to this place. I haven’t played in a few weeks too so that always creates extra motivation and I’m looking forward to it,” said Federer, who is seeded fourth in Dubai.
“I’ve been preparing for over a week. Not much to do other than practice. It’s been a really good preparation week and I hope it’s going to pay off.”
The 17-time grand slam champion is married, has twin girls and has another baby on the way. Asked how he handles all the travelling with his family in tow, the Swiss joked: “I don’t know, it’s like a circus, we put up our tents, then pack them back up and leave on a train.
“It took some getting used to because it changes a lot from when they were little babies to now. I’m really looking forward to how it’s going to be with the next kid.
“I think it’s going to be easy at this point because having twins right off the bat was tough and we made it work so I’m just very happy. And I appreciate my wife doing all the hard work.”
Federer has had a strong start tothe year, reaching the final in Brisbane and the semis at the Australian Open and the Swiss believes he’s in tip-top shape and playing great tennis.
“I feel I’m in as good a shape that I’ve been in a year at least, so that’s very encouraging,” said the world No8. “I feel my best tennis is around the corner. I’ve said that quite a few times but I feel that this time that’s really the case. I wake up with zero pain, I’m excited to play tournaments, a good start to the season, a solid finish to last year’s season as well.
"And what was very encouraging was my off season. I trained really hard here in Dubai for a month so that was key for me to know that my body was going to handle that stress level and for that reason I’m confident for the year.”
Federer could potentially face world No2 and defending Dubai champion Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals.
Djokovic has played only five official matches this year and is coming off a quarter-final loss at the Australian Open.
He comes to Dubai with a new coach Boris Becker as part of his team and says he can overcome the rustiness from the lack of match play when he takes on Denis Istomin in the first round tomorrow.
“It’s going to be challenging for me to go out on the court and try to find a way to play this kind of match situations because I haven’t had many matches this year,” admits Djokovic, who has won the Dubai title four times in the past five years.
“I practiced a lot for three weeks and that’s why I need to be extra careful because it’s totally different when you get on the court and you play an official match in front of a lot of people.
“I’ve been trying to play many points in the last few days against all the players who are in this tournament. Each day I feel little by little progress and hopefully I can have a good tournament here.”
