Roger can’t wait for French return

ROGER FEDERER will play in this year’s French Open – and kick-starts his clay court campaign at next month’s Geneva Open. After missing more than a year following two knee operations, Federer returned on tour at last month’s Qatar Open where he suffered a quarter-final defeat by Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashvili. The 20-time Grand Slam champion then withdrew from the Dubai tournament in order to prepare. Federer, whose only French Open triumph came in 2009, said on Twitter: “Happy to let you know that I will play Geneva and Paris. “Until then I will use the time to train. Can’t wait to play in Switzerland again.”

British pair Dan Evans and Neal Skupski suffered a second successive final defeat to Mate Pavic and Nikola Mektic as they lost in the Monte Carlo Masters.

The duo were hoping to go one better than at the Miami Open but went down to the same rivals in a championship tie-break, losing 6-3 4-6 10-7.

Both teams took breaks of serve at key times and even the deciding tie-break was poised at 7-7.

But the Croats won four successive points to lift the title and end a decent week for Evans, who also got to the semis in the singles.