The top seed admitted on Tuesday
that his current positive situation even has him surprised, with
Switzerland playing France in the Davis Cup final next month.
Federer also has a decent shot at regaining the world number one ranking, given the right circumstances.
Federer
has been training on clay for the Davis Cup showdown but is now back to
total concentration on the slow indoor hardcourt at the St Jakobshalle,
where he has reached the last eight finals at the stadium where he got
his start in the game as a ballboy.
"It's
a nice feeling being back in an arena that I know so well and have had
so much success," said the 17-time Grand Slam winner who opens on
Wednesday in the first round against Luxembourg's Gilles Muller.
"I'm happy Switzerland made the Davis Cup finals. We've put ourselves in an exciting position. An away tie in France is cool.
"And
the fact that I've gotten so close to the number one ranking is a bit
of a surprise for me. I've not won a Slam this year but I was extremely
close at Wimbledon (fifth set against Novak Djokovic).
"But I've played very
consistently or I would not be in this position. It's a very different
year end for me. But If I don't win a few more titles number one won't
happen.
"Right now, it's all to play for, I want to start it well here in Basel."
In
addition to all of those objectives, Federer has the eight-man World
Tour Finals in London to concentrate on the week prior to the Davis
final.
With his crowded schedule,
Federer said that he almost opted not to play Shanghai, where he won
that Masters 1000 title for the first time less than a fortnight ago
beating Frenchman Gilles Simon.
"I
had considered not playing Shanghai and then playing Vienna. But at the
end, I decided to go to Shanghai. If that had not gone well, I might
have even skipped Paris (next week) to train on clay.
"But in the current situation,
I'm feeling good. I had two weeks of vacation after the (September)
Davis Cup semi-finals. There was even the possibility of not playing her
for safety in case I had felt tired or injured after Shanghai.
"The team discussed everything: what was the best for energy, what was my passion, what to do.
"I'm happy I decided to play here. I'll take it from here but it's likely I'll also play Paris."
Federer heads a field where
second seed Rafael Nadal is playing for the first time in a decade. The
Spaniard won his opener on Monday, beating Simone Bolelli.
While
the tournament drawcard was making final preparations, Davis Cup
teammate Stan Wawrinka was going down to defeat in his opening match,
losing to Kazakh Mikhail Kukushkin 6-4, 6-7(1), 6-3 in almost two and
a quarter hours which saw the Australian Open champion's poor run of
form continue having lost his last three matches.
The
match was interrupted for 30 minutes as high winds buffetted city
electric cables and caused e sudden dimming of stadium lights to below
acceptable levels.
Date: 22nd October 2014, Source: AFP
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