Federer has had 'enough breaks,' will play full schedule rest of way

Roger Federer says he plans to return to playing a full schedule following two long breaks during the first half of the season.

Federer has played just four events since returning from a six-month injury break, winning the Australian Open, Indian Wells and Miami.

"I’ve had enough breaks," he told the ATP. "I'm a practice world champion now, and that's not who I want to be. I want to be a champ on the match courts, so I'm going to be playing a regular schedule for the second part of the season."

The 18-time Grand Slam champion acknowledged that it was surprising that he and Rafael Nadal had dominated the first half of the season, with world No. 1 Andy Murray and world No. 4 Novak Djokovic winning just a title each.

"It maybe had something to do with Murray having a bit of a letdown after his great finish to last year, and Novak not playing his absolute best,” Federer said. “We were able to take advantage of the fact that we were in great shape and came refreshed into the season after our injuries.”

But he expects the competition to now increase, though both he and Nadal are in contention to return to No. 1 in the rankings.

"Obviously Rafa is in [a] great position," he said. "For him it's going to be all about staying injury-free. For me it's about getting back to winning ways, where I left off in Miami.

"I'm sure a lot of guys are going to start playing their best in the second half of the season, like Murray, Djokovic, [Kei] Nishikori, [Milos] Raonic, [Alexander] Zverev, [Nick] Kyrgios, Stan [Wawrinka]."

Federer returns to competition at this week's grass-court tournament in Stuttgart. He’ll then play next week in Halle.

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