Recovering Federer upbeat for Indian Wells

By Mark Lamport-Stokes

INDIAN WELLS, California (Reuters) - Swiss world number one Roger Federer, a three-times champion at Indian Wells, said he was happy with his game on Friday after recovering from a recent viral problem.

Federer, top seed at this week's Pacific Life Open, has competed in only two ATP events this season after succumbing to mononucleosis (glandular fever) at the end of last year.

"In practice, everything's perfect and feeling fine," the 26-year-old told reporters during preparation at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden for his opening second round match which has been put back to Sunday.

"I'm really hitting the ball well, so I'm very happy with the level of play at the moment."

Asked if he was 100 percent fit, Federer replied: "I think to feel 100 I need to have more matches under my belt so I will only be able to answer that, hopefully, in a few days' time."

The winner of 12 grand slam titles was finally diagnosed with mononucleosis after the Australian Open in January, when he lost to Serb Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals.

"It wasn't a shock at first when I found out what it was," he said. "It was okay, fine. Then it was let's find out what that exactly means, you know.

"They did more tests and they said I actually went through a very strong mono. Only later did they tell me it was all over and fixed. This was when I was quite relieved.