By Chris Kermode

Since Roger Federer’s incredible win at the Australian Open in January, the tennis world has just been treated to yet another month of magnificent tennis from the Swiss as he dominated the American spring hard court swing with a succession of remarkable performances.

Fresh from that vintage win in Melbourne where he claimed his 18th Grand Slam career title, the incomparable Federer reproduced the magic, not once, but twice while starring at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells and then again at the Miami Open, taking his ATP World Tour Masters 1000 career titles to 26.

More than 439,000 people flocked to the beautiful Indian Wells Tennis Garden to watch Federer’s run to his fifth win at the Californian desert resort, where he defeated compatriot Stan Wawrinka in a hard-fought final.

Federer then crossed the country and reproduced that vintage form in Miami, where he beat a resurgent Nick Kyrgios in a three-tie-break set semi-final to set up yet another showdown with arch-rival Rafael Nadal. Unfortunately for the Spaniard, the result of that final went the same way as the one at the start of the year in Melbourne, with an aggressive and confident Federer coming out on top in front of a capacity crowd that took the overall attendance for the tournament to more than 300,000 spectators.

Tennis fans around the world were treated to two wonderful and highly successful ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events in the March swing through the United States, with Federer leading the charge in a month that saw great performances from a host of other players including Wawrinka, Nadal and Kyrgios along with Jack Sock, Pablo Carreno Busta, Dominic Thiem, Alexander Zverev and Fabio Fognini.

But after that barnstorming performance by Federer on the North American continent, the Tour now turns from the hardcourts to the clay, as the game changes both in pace and character.

The clay court swing is anchored by three ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events — the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, the Mutua Madrid Open and the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome — ahead of Paris for the second Grand Slam of the year at Roland Garros.

When even the mention of clay comes up, attention invariably focuses on one special Spaniard, who has dominated on the traditional surface for more than a decade.

Nadal will take a lot of encouragement from the impressive start to his season on hard courts, and he will be relishing the switch to clay, where he has been the man to beat for a long time. This year he is hoping to complete an amazing and unprecedented feat as he works though the swing.

Rafa, who played his 1,000th career match during the Miami Open, is trying to become the first player to win 10 times at each of a trio of events — Monte-Carlo, Barcelona and Roland Garros.

What an incredible achievement that would be, but he won’t have it all on his own though as a powerful contingent of experienced and up-and-coming players have title ambitions of their own. Of course, there are the likes of Novak Djokovic, Wawrinka and Andy Murray but also many others seeking glory on the clay including rising stars Kyrgios, Zverev, Thiem, Milos Raonic and Grigor Dimitrov, just to name a few.

The competition is always tough on the gruelling clay court circuit and this year promises many great matches as players battle for titles and all important Emirates ATP Rankings points.

While there will be a lot of attention on the singles during the clay court swing, doubles also plays a very important role on the ATP World Tour and there is a special note heading into the swing.

Finland’s Henri Kontinen has become the 50th doubles No. 1 player and the first Finnish player to achieve that career milestone and we congratulate him on that terrific achievement.

And for fans of the up-and-coming stars on the ATP World Tour the good news is that ticket sales for the first Next Gen ATP Finals are soon to go on sale. The tournament will be played in Milan, Italy, from November 7 to 11 and showcases the best 21-and-Under players on the ATP World Tour. It will be great chance to see the future superstars of the game on a big and important stage where various innovations and rule changes will be incorporated into the tournament.

*Chris Kermode is Executive Chairman and President of the ATP and writes exclusively for Gulf News