Roger Federer: 'I have found a perfect balance between hard work and rest'

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He played really well, like I said it was hard to pull away. To his credit, I thought I played really well, managing to win the opening set in mixed conditions, that was important. I like that challenge, it felt like playing a mirror a little bit, that was my mindset, maybe going out little bit, you know how I would play myself potentially because he has a lot of slice backhands and also a similar return to mine.

He can also servevolley but I think my serve made the difference today, not sure. It is very simple to manage the off-season in Australia, we were on vacation and then I started to work hard, came here to Melbourne rejuvenated and ready to go.

You are both rested and ready but as the season goes on we have to prepare differently, depending on what tournaments you played before. For example, I probably would not have done that in the past at the World Tour Finals when you play every second day and I was using my off days just to relax and rest instead of going towards the distanced practice courts and hit.

I played a good tournament there despite ending up not winning it. I try to rest as much as possible even though I know training and matches are really important and it is a crucial balance I have to try to find, especially with the family around.

I think I have found that otherwise I wouldnt have been on the Tour today. Playing the Hopman Cup against Serena was really fun, the city was talking about that and the country as well, that was nice for tennis and definitely for Serena, myself, Frances and Belinda.

It was a wonderful atmosphere, the one I have been looking for sometimes, we were excited about playing against each other since the draw came out. I had a bad percentage while serving to her side, it must have had something with Serenas aura, no doubt about it, Im not kidding.

She is a wonderful player, she was great in that doubles but we were a little bit better and we won so I was very happy with that too.