Australian Open 2017 champion Roger Federer has taken part in only four tournaments this year while winning three of them. The Swiss tennis star started the year off by winning his fifth Australian Open title and after an early exit at the Dubai Tennis Championship, he went on to win the Indian Well and the Miami Open.
Not a lot of people expected Federer to perform so well after he returned from a six-month injury in 2016. At 36, Federer was on top of his game in the three tournaments he won and while tennis fans would have expected him to carry on his form to clay court, he decided to give the season a miss.
Federer decided to skip clay tournaments including the French Open as he feared the clay surface might cause problems to his knee which was operated upon last year. He wanted to be ready for Wimbledon in time as he stated the second half of the season is a priority.
The last time tennis fans saw Federer grace the court was at the beginning of April where he defeated Rafael Nadal to win the Miami Open. The Swiss is set to return to the court on June 14 where he will be taking part in the Mercedes Cup which is part of the ATP World Tour 250 series.
Federer is currently in Zurich where he is training and getting in shape as he prepares himself for the grass court season. After the Mercedes Cup, he is expected to play at Halle Open and then at Wimbledon where he will be looking to win his eighth title.
Federer will be looking to win his first title here and tournament director Edwin Weindorfer is expecting a lot of spectators to watch the World No. 5 compete for the first time this year in Europe. This year the Mercedes Cup will also see the participation of Grigor Dimitrov, Tomas Berdych and Steve Johnson.
