"It feels good to be back" - Federer relishes return to court in Doha

After weeks of anticipation, Roger Federer made his triumphant return to tennis at the 2021 Qatar Open in a thrilling victory over Britain's Dan Evans.

The former World No.1 displayed his entire arsenal in his 7-6(8) 3-6 7-5 win over Evans, looking like he had never lost a beat after 405 days away from the sport due to the pandemic and two knee surgeries.

“It feels good to be back,” Federer said after the match. “I am happy to be standing here regardless of if I won or lost, but obviously winning feels better. It was a good match. Dan played a good match too. He has been a wonderful training partner as well. Over the past two weeks, we played over 20 sets and it went on tonight.”

The three-time Doha champion needed some time to adjust to the new ATP rules regarding the shot clock and towel boxes, but was soon on familiar grounds once the match began.

“It has been a long and tough road for me. I enjoyed it though,” said Federer. “It has been a huge challenge of mine in my tennis career and to come back at my age is not something that is very simple. I have had a wonderful team around myself that always supported me throughout. That made it much easier and it was worth it because I played a good match today.”

Despite dropping the second set to Evans, the 20-time Grand Slam champion remained focused, eventually closing out the match with a patented backhand down the line.

“I said, ‘If I’m going to go out, I’m going to go out swinging.’ Dan had more energy left at the end, but I was serving well and I thought I actually played a really, really good match,” reflected Federer. “I’m incredibly happy about my performance… It was nice to finish off with a backhand down the line.”

Awaiting the Swiss superstar in the quarterfinals is Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili, who defeated Malek Jaziri earlier in the day.

Click here for live scores and results from the Qatar Open.