Swiss tennis superstar Roger Federer said on Saturday that he is ready and fit for the Australian Open 2014 tournament. This, following Federer’s two great announcements this week.
Federer first revealed on Christmas eve that he and his wife Mirka are expecting their third child and later in the week, Federer confirmed that former world number one Stefan Edberg has joined his coaching team.
The 17-time Grand Slam champion said that Edberg, his childhood hero, will be working with him and coach Severin Luthi for at least 10 weeks starting at the Australian Open in Melbourne later in January.
Federer has just arrived in Australia on Saturday. He will be competing at the Brisbane International tournament which begins on Monday. The 32-year old revealed that he’s been preparing for several weeks and noticeably did not participate in exhibition events during the off season.
“I was able to do more than I thought which is very encouraging,” he said.
“I didn’t play any exhibitions which allowed me to train extremely hard and for a longer period of time.
“It’s the first time in a year that I could practice three, four weeks in a row without any setbacks which has been the problem the last one-and-a-half years.”
Edberg has been practicing with Federer for a week in Dubai and Federer believes he still has what it takes to compete against the world’s best players.
“My goals are pretty simple for Brisbane and Melbourne – you want to do as well as you can and get into the groove again because the off-season was a bit longer this time around,” Federer said.
“After that I will look at what my goals regarding rankings and tournament wins, but they are pretty much going to be the same – I want to be part of the best, and hopefully beat the best players in the game.”
