Roger Federer, Andy Murray raring to go ahead of Dubai tennis championships

Roger Federer and Andy Murray are ready to return to tennis action in the 2017 Dubai Open.

The two players last played in the 2017 Australian Open where Federer defied age and injuries to win his 18<sup>th Grand Slam while world number one Murray suffered a shock fourth round exit to Mischa Zverev.

Ahead of the Dubai tennis championships that commence 27 February, Federer has expressed that he needs to keep playing against the best to reach his maximum ability.

"Dare to dream, why not?" the 35-year-old said as quoted on ATP. "I take it one at a time. This one has been so amazing and I'm still riding the wave."

"I hope we're going to get into the problem that I will have to play every day, that means I'm winning matches. It's going to take me some time, until probably April, to feel my best because then I would've played best-of-five matches in Australia, back-to-back matches in Dubai and maybe some in Indian Wells and Miami. Then after Miami I would really know where I'm at.

"I still feel like maybe it's still some work in progress for me. Just getting to understand how the body is going to react, how much load the body can take. It's definitely a little bit of the unknown."

Federer is no stranger to winning in Dubai, having won the ATP event a record seven times with his last victory coming in 2015.

Meanwhile, Murray has revealed that he has recovered from a case of shingles and is ready to return to action for the first time in five weeks.

"I'm fine now, I've been training flat-out for the past few weeks," the 29-year-old said as quoted on BBC. "I was a bit sick for 10 days, a couple of weeks, after I got back from Australia."

"I feel fresh and ready to go here. I had shingles. It's not terrible, but it's not great. I had to go easy for a little while, so I wasn't able to push that hard in training when I got back into it."

Murray, who is the top seed in Dubai, will face Tunisia's Malek Jaziri in the first round on 28 February while Federer faces France's Benoit Paire on 27 February.