Roger Federer says he hopes to return from a long-term knee injury at Doha’s Qatar Open in March.
The 20-time Grand Slam champion will miss the Australian Open for the first time in his career after having two knee surgeries in 2020.
The Swiss has not played since his loss to Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals in Melbourne in January last year.
“I want to celebrate great victories again and for that I’m ready to go the long, hard road,” the 39-year-old said.
The Qatar Open, which Federer has won three times, is set to run from March 8 to 13.
Speaking to Swiss broadcaster SRF, Federer said his main goals for the year were to play at Wimbledon and the Olympic Games.
Federer has won Wimbledon eight times and was a silver medallist in the men’s singles at the 2012 Olympics in London.
“I’ve been thinking about when and where to come back for a long time,” Federer said. “I wanted to make my comeback at a smaller tournament so that I wasn’t fully in focus and where the stress is also a little less.”
The Australian Open, which was delayed by three weeks because of the coronavirus pandemic, begins on February 8.
Meanwhile, world number two Rafa Nadal has pulled out of Spain’s opening ATP Cup tie in Melbourne with a lower back problem with less than a week left for the Australian Open.
Nadal was due to play the second singles against Alex De Minaur in Spain’s tie against hosts Australia at the Rod Laver Arena but pulled out hours before his match.
“Hi all, we have decided with #TeamSpain and my team, to not play today the first match of the @ATPCup here in #Melbourne since I have a stiff low back,” Nadal said on Twitter. “Hopefully I’ll be better for Thursday.”
Spain, who lost in the final of the inaugural ATP Cup last year, will play Greece on Thursday and Nadal would hope he would be fit to play the tie and get some match practice before the Feb. 8-21 Australian Open.
A spokesman for Nadal, who tied Roger Federer’s 20 Grand Slam singles titles with his French Open victory last year, told Reuters that the 34-year-old preferred “not to force too much”.
Nadal was replaced by Pablo Carreno Busta for Tuesday’s singles match. The Spaniard was one of the top players who quarantined in Adelaide for 14 days after their arrival Down Under.
At the end of his isolation, he defeated Dominic Thiem 7-5 6-4 on Friday in a highly entertaining exhibition match between the men’s world number two and three at Adelaide’s Memorial Drive Tennis Club.
