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Roger Federer has ditched plans to spend a snowy Swiss Christmas at home and will instead celebrate with his family in the desert Gulf before flying to Australia later in the week to start his 2014 season at the Brisbane International.
He told the Courier Mail newspaper that logistics had proved to be too much to take his wife and 4-year-old twin daughters to Switzerland for a few days only to then make the long trip to Australia.
The 17-time Grand Slam winner, who is currently ranked six in the ATP ranking, will play the Brisbane event for the first time as he begins his Australian Open preparation at the weekend.
“The idea was to go back to Switzerland and enjoy it in the snow, but it’s one of those sacrifices you have to make,” Federer told the newspaper. “It’s probably too much for me and also my family to go back to Switzerland and then to Australia.”
Federer will be top seed at the Brisbane tournament, which he hopes will kick-start 2014 in winning style after suffering through his worst season in a decade in 2013 with just one title. The Swiss masters debut at the Brisbane has sparked a surge in ticket sales to record levels.
Others in the men’s field at the joint ATP-WTA tournament include Grigor Dimitrov, Australian Lleyton Hewitt, and Japan’s Kei Nishikori.
The 32-year-old Federer will then head directly to Melbourne for private training prior to the January 13 start of the Australian Open, which he hopes to win for a fifth time.
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