Forgive Roger Federer if he already is looking ahead to a nice little family holiday.
Yes, there's still two weeks and the possibility of six more matches to play at this Australian Open, but the reality of today's elite tennis is that there is no off in the offseason. After the mid-November, year-end tournament in London, there was the Davis Cup final against France, some exhibitions in India and the Swiss master's grueling one-week workout in Dubai. This year, young Belgian David Goffin was his practice partner.
"I need a bit of a break after this because the year end was short," Federer said in his pre-tournament news conference Saturday. "In a way, it's not so bad. Usually you start the Australian Open not quite knowing where your game's at. But because I didn't take that much time off, I got right back into practice. I played some [exhibitions]. I kind of knew right away when I picked up the racket again, feeling good, and the back problem has gone away.
"I practiced actually very hard, to be quite honest, because I played so many matches I didn't have enough practice. So I came out of it a bit tired. But that's normal when you practice hard. That's why for me it was important to not over-train when I came to Brisbane, not over-train in these middle weeks, so I maintain the freshness."
When you're 33 and have two sets of twins at home, freshness is everything. Federer won his first four matches and the title in Brisbane with a nifty victory over Milos Raonic in the final. It was the 1,000th ATP World Tour match win for Federer.
His 1,001st was not quite as noteworthy.
Federer handled Yen-Hsun Lu of Chinese Taipei 6-4, 6-2, 7-5 in the first night session of the Australian Open fortnight. He has never lost in the first round Down Under.
It was fairly standard stuff for Federer, who had 57 winners and 37 unforced errors. He managed to convert four of 14 break-point opportunities.
Next up: Italy's Simone Bolelli, who took down Juan Monaco in four sets. Ivo Karlovic or Tommy Robredo could await Federer in the fourth round and Andy Murray or Grigor Dimitrov is the likely opponent in the quarterfinals.
Federer is the most accomplished player of the Open era, and his Australian Open results prove it; he made the semifinals in Melbourne for the 11th consecutive time a year ago. Still, his four titles underline his age and stage. He beat Marat Safin in the 2004 final, Marcos Baghdatis in 2006, Fernando Gonzalez in 2007 and Andy Murray in 2010. Only Murray is left on tour.
He won more matches than any other ATP player last year, but there was a lot going on in his life beyond the arrival of a second set of twins.
"Yeah, clearly things are more calm this year, I guess, coming in," Federer said Saturday. "Last year, having the new racket, having gotten through the back issues, having gone through the offseason, feeling good but still not quite sure because I needed matches to see how it was going to cope. I came here also with Stefan Edberg helping me out.
"There was many changes that took place in the six months leading into, I guess, the Australian Open, whereas this time around I've played so well. Also was able to win Brisbane last week. Makes me feel more secure, I guess, this year coming into the Aussie Open."
Good thing. He needs his rest.
"The bigger break is going to come after the Australian Open," Federer said. "That's when I'm really going to decide how much I play, where I'm going to play, even though I have a rough idea how it's going to go. This year's different than last year. So we'll see how it is on vacation."