Federer looks to Brisbane as 2016 launch-pad

“It was one of six I won last year, it was an important one because it got the year going”. After a bye, Federer will play the Mitchell/Qualifier victor in his 2016 opener.

Nevertheless, Djokovic remains focused on his own game and is aiming to win every competition he enters this year, starting with the Qatar Open which begins on Monday.

“He’s played against a bunch of players that I’ve played against and we played against each other over 15 times as well, so he knows my game very well”.

“Of course, I am going to try to win every tournament and every Grand Slam that I play, that’s kind of the mindset that I have”.

Federer won the Brisbane International’s males singles in 2015 – in his 1000th match – before Queensland’s former stars Roy Emerson and Rod Laver. Lleyton Hewitt and Jarmila Wolfe-Gajdosova of Australia Gold were to play Czech Republic’s Karolina Pliskova and Jiri Vesely of Czech Republic later Sunday.

Hewitt will retire when his Australian Open campaign comes to an end this month.

Federer was full of praise for his friend, who won the 2001 US Open and the 2002 Wimbledon crowns.

Needless to say, Federer’s 2006 has never been replicated; least of all, by him.

“What I like about him, he’s very direct – he lets you know what he sees and thinks”, Federer told Australian Associated Press.

“And he is one of the reasons why I am the player I am today because (at the start) I took a completely different route”. He had a back injury in 2013.

Before his first practice session of the new year, against Denis Istomin, Federer also promised to retain his attacking approach, saying that the 2015 Brisbane tournament “did show me very quickly that aggressive tennis was the way for me to go this last year, and we’ll see how aggressive I can play this year again”.

He says Brisbane opponents Kei Nishikori, Grigor Dimitrov and Milos Raonic are among those who will be keen to break the big four’s dominance.

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