Just weeks away from his return, Roger Federer said on Friday that he’s feeling rejuvenated and is eager to come back to tour-level competition after missing half of the 2016 season.

Federer, speaking with reporters on a conference call, said he’s played “very well” in practice matches with fellow ATP World Tour pros Lucas Pouille of France, Borna Coric of Croatia and Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Federer also said he doesn’t regret sitting out six months of the season. The Swiss legend last played in July at the Wimbledon semi-finals (l. to Raonic).

“I do believe it could be very beneficial for the future of my tennis career that I’ve had this six-month layoff,” Federer said. “I feel rejuvenated, refreshed. Maybe mentally I needed this rest more than I thought I would. Maybe also my body needed a rest more than I thought I would.”

The 88-time tour-level titlist had never taken off so much as few weeks in a season before this year. But 2016 was far from a regular campaign for the 35-year-old father of four.

In February, for the first time in Federer’s career, he had to undergo surgery. A day after losing to Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open semi-finals, Federer tore a meniscus in his left knee while preparing a bath for his twin girls. The right-hander returned to competition two months later, in Monte-Carlo, and, the following month, played the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome.

But Federer then missed another month of the season before making his return on the grass in Stuttgart. He’d play only two more tournaments, including Wimbledon, before later announcing he wouldn’t play again until 2017.

“It was really about taking a tough decision to say, ‘I give myself time, I deserve to give myself time.’ I take six months off in a 20-year career, it’s OK. If you look at six months off in a 12-month season it sounds like there’s no chance I’m ever going to take six months off,” Federer said. “But I tried to look at the big picture. At least one thing I know now, let’s say the knee won’t be good, I have no regrets. I feel I did everything this year to get my body back in shape and now only time can tell.”

Resting for so long assured Federer that he wouldn’t need a second surgery on his left knee. “That for me was No. 1 and crucial. I just needed it to rest really,” he said.

After Wimbledon, he tried to play again in August but decided against seriously testing his knee. “I played again, very quick. There was a bit of a reaction in the knee and that’s when you realize … we knew it was too early,” he said.

Last month, Federer took a couple weeks off before resuming training for 2017. “The last six weeks for me have been crucial and obviously the last two weeks in November when I came back from vacation were really important for me to see how much load I could put on the leg,” Federer said. “Very quickly we realized at the end of November, early December, I was not at 100 per cent yet, let’s be honest, because you always need more time, more reassurance. But things went very well. I didn’t have any setbacks. In the end it all worked out according to plan.”

The time off had upsides as well. “It was great to spend more quality time with the kids, or me with more energy rather than having to worry, ‘Careful, I have a match tomorrow’ or ‘I need to go to bed’ or in the morning ‘Don’t wake me up’ kind of thing because daddy needs to sleep a little bit,” Federer said.

Federer, who has won 24 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles and 17 Grand Slam crowns, said he thinks his 18^th Grand Slam title could come next season. He will make his return to tour-level competition at the Australian Open, which starts 16 January.

“I think I’ve been awfully close the last few years but that doesn’t count because it wasn’t winning,” Federer said. “Time will tell if it’s going to be possible or not.”

Watch me practice #RFLive https://t.co/KroGaKUtJ8

— Roger Federer (@rogerfederer) December 22, 2016

Former Wimbledon doubles champion Horia Tecau is now a published author. The Romanian wrote a children’s book titled, ‘Viata in ritm de tenis’, translated in English to ‘Life in the rhythm of tennis’, to show children the importance of sports and reading.

The 110-page book encourages children to pursue their dreams through hard work and how to persevere through life’s challenges. “It’s full of lessons that I’ve learned through my tennis experiences,” Tecau said.

Buy The Book

Tecau provided space in the book for children to write their own dreams as well. He launched the book with about 300 kids on 12 December in Bucharest.

The 31-year-old Tecau has won 29 tour-level doubles titles, including 2015 Wimbledon, 2015 Barclays ATP World Tour Finals and two ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments (Cincinnati, 2012; Madrid, 2016). He and Jean-Julien Rojer finished as the 2015 year-end No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Doubles Team Rankings.

Next November, the ATP World Tour’s brightest young stars will take the stage in Milan for the Next Gen ATP Finals. Billed as the ‘Next Generation’ during the campaign launch this past March in Indian Wells, this group of players unleashed their potential in 2016.

In total, 22 players aged 21 and under finished in the Top 200 of the Emirates ATP Rankings, including eight inside the Top 100. Continuing our season in review series, we look back on the 2016 campaigns of the top NextGen players.

No. 13 Nick Kyrgios (21 years, 7 months)
The Australian clinched a trio of titles in 2016 to place fifth among tour leaders behind Andy Murray (9), Novak Djokovic (7), Dominic Thiem (4) and Stan Wawrinka (4). Kyrgios held all 47 service games en route to his first title in Marseille, where he defeated No. 10 Richard Gasquet and No. 8 Tomas Berdych – two of his six victories against Top 10 players this season. He dethroned three-time defending champion John Isner at the BB&T Atlanta Open in August, and followed with the ATP World Tour 500 crown in Tokyo, where he rallied to defeat David Goffin in the final. Kyrgios also reached his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 semi-final in Miami, helping him finish with 39 match wins and a career-high No. 13 Emirates ATP Ranking.

Read: Kyrgios’ Stellar Serving Sparks Best Year On Tour

No. 24 Alexander Zverev (19 years, 8 months)
With his triumph at the St. Petersburg Open, the 19 year old became the youngest player to win an ATP World Tour title since Kei Nishikori and Marin Cilic in 2008. He also became the first teen since Boris Becker in 1986 to defeat three Top 10 players in succession (d. No. 9 Berdych, No. 3 Wawrinka and No. 10 Thiem). Zverev, the 2015 ATP Star of Tomorrow presented by Emirates, reached two other finals – on clay in Nice (l. to Thiem) and on grass in Halle, where he upended eight-time champion Roger Federer in the semi-finals. Zverev reached four other semi-finals – Montpellier, Munich, Washington and Stockholm – finishing his campaign with 44 match wins, which was 10th among tour leaders (tied with Monfils). Zverev rose from a year-end No. 83 Emirates ATP Ranking in 2015 to World No. 20 by October.

Read: Opportunity Breeds Success For Zverev 

No. 45 Kyle Edmund (21 years, 11 months)
From a No. 85 Emirates ATP Ranking going into the US Open, Edmund rose to a career-high No. 40 in October. At Flushing Meadows, he defeated No. 15 Richard Gasquet and Americans Ernesto Escobedo and John Isner before falling to No. 1 Novak Djokovic. Edmund broke into the Top 50 after reaching the Beijing quarter-finals as a qualifier (l. to Murray) and into the Top 40 after making his first ATP World Tour semi-final in Antwerp (l. to Gasquet). Ranked just outside the Top 100 to start the 2016 season, the Brit advanced to his first tour-level quarter-final in Doha as a qualifier in the opening week of the season (l. to Berdych). He also won a pair of ATP Challenger Tour titles in Dallas and Rome, and followed with a quarter-final showing at The Queen’s Club (l. to Murray).

No. 48 Borna Coric (20 years, 1 month)
Though no longer the youngest player in the Top 50 of the Emirates ATP Rankings, the 20-year-old Coric still enjoyed a couple age-related distinctions in 2016. In Chennai during the first week of the season, he became the first teenager to play in an ATP World Tour final since fellow Croatian Marin Cilic in 2008. Coric, the 2014 ATP Star of Tomorrow presented by Emirates, followed with another runner-up showing in Marrakech (l. to Delbonis). In Cincinnati this summer, Coric became the youngest ATP World Tour Masters 1000 quarter-finalist since Novak Djokovic in 2006 as he defeated Benoit Paire, Nick Kyrgios and No. 5 Rafael Nadal in succession. Though his season was cut short a month later when he underwent right knee surgery, Coric still finished inside the Top 50 for a second straight year.

Read: Coric Named In Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Sports List

No. 53 Karen Khachanov (20 years, 7 months)
The 20 year old joined Kyrgios and Zverev as one of three first-time winners from the group of NextGen stars in 2016, rising from a No. 101 Emirates ATP Ranking to No. 55 in the space of a week. At the inaugural Chengdu Open, Khachanov knocked out four seeded players, beating Joao Sousa, Feliciano Lopez and Viktor Troicki in straight sets before capping his week with a 6-7(4), 7-6(3), 6-3 comeback against Albert Ramos-Vinolas in the final. Only four months earlier, Khachanov had broken into the Top 100 after lifting his second ATP Challenger Tour trophy. He made a winning Grand Slam main draw debut as a qualifier at the US Open and finished his breakthrough season with a quarter-final result in Vienna.

Read & Watch: Khachanov Claims Maiden Title In Chengdu

No. 76 Taylor Fritz (19 years, 1 month)
The American followed in Borna Coric and Alexander Zverev’s footsteps this year, finishing as the youngest player in the Top 100 to be named the ATP Star of Tomorrow presented by Emirates. Fritz, who celebrated his 19th birthday at the end of the October, rose from No. 694 in October 2015 to the Top 100 by the end of February. Following success on the ATP Challenger Tour, where he claimed three titles from four finals, Fritz became the youngest finalist on the ATP World Tour since 2008 when he finished runner-up at the Memphis Open – only his third tour-level event. The California native won 15 tour-level matches and reached a career-high No. 53 in the Emirates ATP Rankings in August. 

Read: Fritz’s Path To Another Banner Season

You are serving, down break point.

The initial element of a successful hold strategy is to make your first serve. You would think this would come naturally for the Top 20 players in the Emirates ATP Rankings – an innate ability to elevate their games in moments of crisis.

An Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis of 13,295 break points against Top 20 players in both the 2015 and 2016 seasons actually showed just the opposite, with this elite group struggling like players at all levels of the game to find new heights when they need them the most.

Only four of the Top 20 in 2016 made more first serves down break point than they did on average during the season, which was even fewer than the seven who did in 2015. The standout this season was Rafael Nadal, who not only boasted the highest overall first-serve percentage of the Top 20 at 70 per cent, but he also doubled down to raise it to all the way to 79 per cent when facing break point.

First serves on break points matter greatly. Nadal has saved substantially more break points behind his first serve than his second serve during the past two seasons.

2016 Nadal Break Points Saved
First Serve = 69 per cent (162/236)
Second Serve = 52 per cent (32/61)

2015 Nadal Break Points Saved
First Serve = 68 per cent (202/298)
Second Serve = 49 per cent (62/127)

The four Top 20 players in 2016 who made a higher percentage of first serves on break point than their season average:

Nadal and Kei Nishikori were the only two players to be ranked in the Top 20 in the 2015 and 2016 seasons and also make more first serves down break point than their season average. This season, Roberto Bautista Agut and Richard Gasquet both improved one percentage point in their first-serve average on break point.

The seven Top 20 players in the 2015 season to elevate their first-serve performance down break point:

David Goffin and Stan Wawrinka were the standout performers in 2015, with Goffin posting an impressive eight percentage point jump, from 55 per cent to 63 per cent. Nadal and Kevin Anderson bumped up two percentage points, while Novak Djokovic, Nishikori and Feliciano Lopez all improved one percentage point.

Overall in 2016, the Top 20 averaged making 62 per cent of their first serves, but just 61 percent when down break point. The 2015 season also saw a similar one per cent drop, from 61 per cent to 60 per cent. In both 2015 and 2016, the Top 20 made more first serves facing break point in the deuce court than in the ad court.

2016 Season
Deuce Court: 64 per cent
Ad Court: 60 per cent

2015 Season
Deuce Court: 61 per cent
Ad Court: 59 per cent

This kind of analysis helps players from Melbourne to Moscow to Madrid understand the hidden metrics that underpin the most important moments in a match.