Swiss Indoors 2018 tennis live stream: When and where to watch Roger Federer matches

Eight-time champion Federer begins his title defence in Basel against unseeded world number 35, Filip Krajinovic of Serbia on Tuesday. Here's how you can watch Swiss Indoors on TV, online.

Roger Federer returns to the tour at Swiss Indoors — the ATP 500 tournament that will be played between October 22 and 28 at the 20-time Grand Slam champion's hometown, Basel.

When do the matches start and how to watch it live

The matches on Day 1 of the tournament will start at 2 pm local time, 5:30 pm IST and 1 pm BST.

Sony ESPN and Sony ESPN HD will provide live television coverage of the match in India. The live stream will be available on Sony Liv.

Swiss Indoors Basel 2018 preview

File photo of Roger Federer at Shanghai Masters 2018.Lintao Zhang/Getty Images

Eight-time champion Federer is back in Basel to defend the title which he had won last year after beating Juan Martin del Potro. The 36-year-old enters this year's edition as the top seed and opens his campaign against world number 35, Filip Krajinovic of Serbia on Tuesday.

Federer is likely to face fifth seed and wildcard entrant Jack Sock from the USA in the quarter-final. Fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas and seventh seed Daniil Medvedev have also been drawn in Federer's half of the draw, which has no real threats to the big man.

Federer needs to make good use of the favourable draw, considering he has 500 points to defend in Basel. Having already lost the second spot on ATP charts to Novak Djokovic, the Swiss great cannot afford to slip further from the top two.

He heads into the tournament on the back of a semi-final exit at Shanghai Masters earlier this month and a good run at his hometown will only boost his confidence ahead of the Tour Finals.

Meanwhile, second seed Alexander Zverev headlines the second half of the draw, which is certainly more competitive on paper than Federer's half.

While Zverev opens his campaign against Robin Haase, he may face eighth seed Roberto Bautista Agut in the quarter-final.

Stan Wawrinka, who is struggling to hit form on return from injury, will also be hoping to revive his fortunes at home.

On the other hand, third seed Marin Cilic, the champion from the 2016 edition, faces a stiff test as early as in the opening round as he faces the explosive Denis Shapovalov.