Federer to play in Davis Cup

Swiss tennis star Roger Federer is to play in the 2009 Davis Cup tournament against the United States in March.

Making the announcement on his website on Tuesday, he said he was looking forward to joining his Swiss teammates for what he called a “tough weekend”.

Federer had already said on Monday that he would play the Paris Masters tennis tournament this week, the final event of this year’s ATP regular season, putting an end to speculation that he might not appear.

He has received a bye for the first round and his first match will be against the Swede Robin Söderling.

The other Swiss on the men’s side, 12th-seeded Stanislas Wawrinka, also received a bye and is up against the Czech Tomas Berdych in the second round.

Federer, who won the Swiss Indoors in his hometown of Basel on Sunday, had said he was tired after beating David Nalbandian of Argentina for his 57th career title.

But the result was a morale boost for the 27-year-old who lost his world number one ranking in August after a record 237 consecutive weeks. He will nevertheless finish the year behind his Spanish rival Rafael Nadal.

The Swiss player is tennis’s all-time earnings leader, having won more than $43.5 million (SFr50.6 million) over his career.