Federer beats Evans on return

Roger Federer toasted his comeback after 14 months battling knee injuries by battling past Britain’s Dan Evans 7-6 (10-8) 3-6 7-5 at the Qatar Open.

Swiss great Federer was forced to grind all the way by his recent training partner Evans, with the 30-year-old from Birmingham even saving a match point.

But 39-year-old Federer was not to be denied victory on his big return, having fought off two knee surgeries to return to ATP tour action.

The 20-time Grand Slam champion had not played since his straight-sets defeat to Novak Djokovic in the 2020 Australian Open.

Federer mixed signs of rust with moments of magic, eventually just pulling home to book a quarter-final meeting with Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashvili.

The three-time Qatar champion was handed a bye to the second round and a clash with Evans, who battled past French veteran Jeremy Chardy in the opening round.

Evans, 30, had lost all three of his previous career meetings with Federer but had taken a set each time and was banking on being a different proposition due to his improvement during Federer’s time away.

Dominic Thiem also advanced with a 6-7 (5-7) 6-3 6-2 win over Australian Open semifinalist Aslan Karatsev.

Eddie Pepperell has had to remind himself of his abilities as he bids to get his career back on track in the Qatar Masters.

Pepperell won his maiden European Tour title in Qatar in 2018 but did not defend it 12 months later as he was competing in the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill instead.

A tie for third place in the following week’s Players Championship lifted Pepperell to 36th in the world rankings, but this year his ranking of 169th meant he was ineligible to return to Sawgrass and instead will compete at Education City Golf Club in Doha, where he was disqualified in 2020.

Pepperell has missed the cut on his only two starts to date in 2021 and admits he has been struggling to cope with the effects of the lockdown in England.

“I don’t have a clue really how anything is,” Pepperell said when asked about the state of his game. “I haven’t done a great deal at home.

“I’ve been kindly allowed to practice, but I haven’t done much in the way of putting or chipping, so we’ll have to wait and see.

“It’s just challenging at the moment. It’s more the general mood of everything, I’m struggling with it. I’m craving some golf and a little bit of a run of events (although) I’m not going to get that until mid-April or May. I’m looking forward to the summer.

“I was never really much of a goal setter but I’m having to remind myself that I’m even a golf professional. To have so little to look forward to, to have so much uncertainty, it’s wearing me down a bit.

“I’m just looking forward to getting some sort of normalcy back and then I hope these things will come back to me.

“Having said that, the longer you spend out of that habit the harder it can be to get back into it so I’m a bit wary of that.

“I need to get competitive again, become a golf professional again and try and make the best of the rest of my career.”

Spain’s Jorge Campillo defeated Scotland’s David Drysdale in a play-off in last year’s Qatar Masters, the final event completed on the European Tour before the coronavirus shutdown.