If it’s Tuesday, this must be … Miami for Roger Federer

KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. – It’s only when you see it in back-to-back tournaments that you get some sense of the more monotonous parts of professional tennis at the Roger Federer level.

Obviously, as Federer said Tuesday in Miami, there’s the fact that preparation for the second of the two events isn’t as ideal as he would like. But the other thing is the repetitiveness.

Federer answered a lot of questions Sunday in the desert, after he defeated Stan Wawrinka to win the BNP Paribas Open. Less than 48 hours later, he was basically answering the very same questions for a new audience at the Miami Open. He’d probably want to tell the assembled media, “Check the transcript from Indian Wells, huh? It’s all there.” But Federer understands that in each city, the journalists and TV stations need own sound bites.

He was still answering the same questions he was answering two months ago in Australia, really – about being out, about coming back. There is very little he hasn’t heard by now; some days he cheerily responds. Tuesday he was polite, but clearly not in the mood to hold court all afternoon.

And so he said it all again. Here are a few clips of what it looked and sounded like.

After that, Federer got onto the stadium court for the first time this year, in the company of Alexandr Dolgopolov. Some video, and also some photos here.

He’ll have a bye in the first round, and he and Nadal are on opposite sides of the draw.