Roger Federer makes his Grand Slam comeback from injury with an opening round match against experienced Austrian Jurgen Melzer at the Australian Open on Monday. MATCH REPORT HERE!
Australian Open Players to Watch
Federer sat out the second half of 2016 with a knee injury and now the Swiss will hope to get back to his usual best with this first round match at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne.
The 17-time Grand Slam winner prepared for the Australian Open by playing in the Hopman Cup in Perth, and the former world number one is confident he is in the right frame of mind and body to go deep in the tournament.
"I feel great," Federer said while talking to reporters prior to the start of the 2017 Aus Open. "I felt Hopman Cup was great preparation. We'll see if it was perfect or not.
"Conditions felt virtually identical to me. Center court in Perth was sort of similar size. Court speed felt the same. Obviously same continent, all that stuff. It felt really good.
"Then practice was more about just managing, maintaining, not overtraining, but nevertheless still play enough to get used to the conditions here again, even though it's the same. You know how it is, you just have to put down the hours, play the sets. I did that."
What will make Federer even better, though, is an authoritative win over Melzer, currently ranked 300 in the world after struggling, like his opponent, with injury. The Austrian had to come through the qualifiers to make the main round of the Australian Open, but Federer will know Melzer, a former top ten player, is a tough customer.
Federer is only seeded 17th in this year's Australian Open, which means he will have tough matches early in the tournament. That means, the quicker he finds his rhythm, the better.
"I've trained as hard as I possibly could, so I will be ready for it," Federer added. "I did numerous sessions where I trained over two and a half, three hours. I feel I'm ready."
When to Watch Live
Roger Federer vs Jurgen Melzer is the second match of the evening session. The first match -- Angelique Kerber vs Lesia Tsurenko -- is scheduled for a 7pm local time (1.30pm IST, 8am GMT, 3am ET) start.
Live Streaming and TV information for the Australian Open first round:
India: TV: Sony Six and Sony Six HD. Live Streaming: Sonyliv and Yupp TV.
Australia: TV: Channel 7. Live Streaming: 7 Live.
UK: TV: EuroSport. Live Streaming: EuroSport Player.
USA: TV: ESPN 3 and ESPN 2. Live Streaming: Watch ESPN.
