Roger Federer route to world number one confirmed as Rotterdam Open draw is made

Roger Federer will begin attempts to become the oldest world number one in tennis history against a qualifier at the Rotterdam Open.

The Swiss accepted a wild card to play the indoor event last week, but must wait to discover the identity of his first opponent who he will face on Wednesday [14 February] at 7:30pm local time. He needs to reach the semi-finals or better to leapfrog Rafael Nadal in the ATP rankings.

Daniil Medvedev is among the possible options, with the Russian the highest ranked player in the qualifying event taking place this weekend. Four berths from the 16-man event are still available in the main draw.

German Philipp Kohlschreiber or Karen Khachanov, both of whom he has never lost to in a combined 13 matches, await in round two before a host of familiar faces loom in the latter stages.

It is likely that fellow-countryman Stan Wawrinka will await in the quarter-finals, a match Federer will have to win if he wants to return to world number one this week.

None of the Swiss number two's wins over the 20-time grand slam champion have come away from a clay surface - an ominous sign ahead of a potentially classic last eight clash.

Should the 36-year-old Federer evade that hurdle then world number five Alexander Zverev or defending champion Jo-Wilfried Tsonga are likely to stand between him and a place in the final.

Despite the bottom half of the draw including Tomas Berdych and David Goffin, Grigor Dimitrov is the outstanding favourite to progress to the final. The Bulgarian begins his campaign against Yuchi Sugita of Japan.

Meanwhile, capacity crowds at the sold out ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament will be treated to an all-Dutch meeting in the opening round after Robin Hasse and wild card Thiemo de Bakker were pitted against each other in the first round.

"This is not the best draw," world number 356 De Bakker said. "I do not mind playing against Robin, but in the second round or quarterfinals. You know at such a strong tournament as in Rotterdam that you will always meet a strong player."