The last time his casual Swiss swagger graced Pat Rafter Arena, Roger Federer was stepping up to the microphone with his 83rd career trophy in hand, having just notched match win No.1000.
The top seed and defending champion returns for his first outing of 2016 with German qualifier Tobias Kamke standing across the net from him tonight.
A winner of 17 grand slam singles crowns, the 34-year-old also reached the final here in 2014, where he fell to Lleyton Hewitt.
After successfully going one better in 2015, he would go on to add another five singles crown to his tally for the season – Dubai, Istanbul, Halle, Cincinnati and Basel – as well as two runner-up showings in the majors – at Wimbledon and the US Open.
Federer has taken down the German once before in 2012.
As the only man to beat world No.1 Novak Djokovic three times last year, big things could be on the horizon once more.
“I’ve been playing really well for over one and a half years – ever since I came back from my back problems in 2013,” Federer said.
“That’s been very encouraging and now I’m just more confident than I was maybe a year ago as well.”
In the first match on Pat Rafter Arena on Thursday night, former world No.1 Victoria Azarenka will clash with eighth seed Roberta Vinci, the Italian responsible for ending Serena Williams’ bid for a calendar-year grand slam in the semifinals of last year’s US Open.
Azarenka, the Brisbane champion in 2009, has dropped just seven games in her first two matches combined, and is pushing to regain the form which landed her back-to-back Australian Open titles in 2012 and 2013. She will carry a 3-0 head-to-head ledger into her match with the 32-year-old.
German No.4 seed Angelique Kerber opens Day 5 on Pat Rafter Arena when she meets a familiar opponent, 2013 Brisbane finalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Seven times the pair has played, with the German holding the edge 4-3. Kerber won four titles last season – Charleston, Stuttgart, Birmingham and Stanford – while the Russian titled in Linz.
Kerber’s doubles partner and Fed Cup teammate Andrea Petkovic will also take to Pat Rafter Arena today, against unheralded American qualifier Samantha Crawford. Petkovic – a finalist here in 2011 – won a title in Antwerp last year, while 20-year-old Crawford claimed her biggest career win when she upset No.7 seed Belinda Bencic here in the second round.
Big-serving Canadian fourth seed Milos Raonic round’s out the day’s play on Pat Rafter Arena when he takes on Croatian qualifier Ivan Dodig in the second round.
After reaching last year’s Brisbane final, Raonic went on to reach the quarterfinals at the Australian Open and captured his seventh career title later in the year at St Petersburg, ending a 14-month title drought. Dodig’s season was highlighted by quarterfinal runs in Zagreb and Marseille.
While the 14th-ranked Raonic is expected to beat the world No.87, the Croatian holds a 2-1 advantage in the head-to-head stakes.