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Roger Federer has the experience behind him to know how to cope with coming back from a long injury lay off to win more Grand Slam titles, according to former world No 5 Rainer Schuettler. Federer makes his long-awaited return to competitive tennis next week at the Qatar Open in Doha.

It’s been an arduous 12 months for the 39-year-old since undergoing double knee surgery in 2020.

There was initially some hope that Federer would return to action at the 2021 Australian Open, but the Grand Slam came too soon in his rehabilitation.

Instead, the Swiss tennis icon has pencilled in the Qatar Open as his comeback tournament – an event he has won on three occasions in the past.

The ATP Tour 250 event will be a chance for Federer to work up to full fitness ahead of a busy summer which includes the Tokyo Olympics.

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He enters as the No 2 seed with the field also including the likes of Dominic Thiem, Andrey Rublev and Denis Shapovalov.

And Federer plans to play in back-to-back tournaments in the Middle East after adding the Dubai Tennis Championships to his calendar.

Little else is known on what Federer plans to do for the rest of the year, but he has previously skipped the claycourt season in order to give himself the best chance at Wimbledon.

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Schuettler, who faced Federer four times in his career, believes the 20-time Grand Slam champion will be confident that he’s in top shape to compete upon his comeback.

“Roger organises his tournament schedule and his return to the tour very meticulously and precisely,” Schuettler told Eurosport.

“Even after his last injury break, Roger showed that a longer break can be expected.

“He has so much experience and knows his body extremely well.”

There will be plenty of focus on how Federer performs in his first event in over 12 months, particularly with both Nadal and Djokovic breaking several of his records in the past year.

Federer’s achievements in the sport have seen him earn legendary status though and Schuettler doesn’t think defeats in the latter stages of his career will undermine any of that.

“What Roger has achieved and achieved in his career will always remain outstanding,” he added.

“He has broken so many records and won tournaments that even a few defeats would not change that.”

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