In a somewhat surprising move, Roger Federer will play just one clay-court tournament in 2016, that being Roland Garros.
The 34-year-old released a tentative schedule on Thursday and will play fairly heavily from January through beginning of March. Federer will play Brisbane and the Australian Open to open the season; afterwards, he will enter Rotterdam and Dubai. But after Indian Wells, Federer will skip the next four ATP Masters 1000 events, in Miami (hard courts), Monte Carlo, Madrid and Rome (all clay courts).
Federer will only play five ATP Mastes 1000s next year: Indian Wells, Canada, Cincinnati, Shanghai and Paris.