By N.D. Prashant/Doha

Roger Federer poses with children during a clinic at the  Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex yesterday
Despite scaling unimaginable heights in tennis, World No 2 Roger Federer feels that success has only added to his motivation and hunger for greater accomplishments.
“Really sort of eight seasons have all been so good, you know.  Better than I ever hoped them to be, that every time you come out of the season and you’re excited about the new season because you can’t get enough of the success and the life you’re living and the dreams you’re able to chase,” Federer told journalists yesterday
“So then if you finish first, second, or third, it doesn’t really change much because I still had amazing highlights last year,” added Federer, who is here to take part in the season opening Qatar ExxonMobil Open.
The Swiss ace currently has a new coach in Paul Annacone and is keen to start the season on a high under him.
“Yes a new coach has joined my team, which again also made it exciting coming up with maybe new winning ways and those kind of things. Today I enjoy myself maybe more than even when I came on tour, so the success is only one part or a small part of how I approach the next season, because I pretty much always work in the long term.
“I guess, you know, and that’s why when the new season starts, you know, everything sort of gets put back to zero, the points and those sorts of things,” said Federer, who signed off 2010 with a brilliant win over Nadal in the season-ending event in London.
“For me now, that break was rather short.  I think it might have been a good thing, because I’ve been playing really well at the end, and I hope I can carry it over, still no surface change, so I hope I can kind of bring my momentum over to 2011 and I can expect myself to play good tennis again,” said Federer, who would be playing his first round match against a qualifier today.
Federer was of the view that parting ways with his coach Severin Luthi and bring in Annacone has had its own advantage and had done a world of good to his game.
“ Yeah, I mean, it’s just nice talking to someone who maybe came in more from the outside, because with Severin we have been working more on the inside. 
“He knew me so well since a very long time, obviously, and then being Davis Cup captain and traveling with me for 30 plus weeks for many years.  I think that’s very interesting for us to all work together.
“But obviously Paul came from the outside and maybe has always seen things in my game he could never really tell me because we haven’t been working together.  I don’t just go up to coaches and just ask them for free advice, you know.  It’s just not the way I go about things.
“I think it was very exciting for both of us to start working.  Some always feel like the impact needs to happen immediately, which maybe it kind of did, I don’t know, but also the surface change to the hard courts definitely helped. My team is great, and we all get along really well. 
“I think Paul integrated extremely well into the team, and it makes it fun to come up with new ways trying to beat an opponent and maybe showed me also some ways that I didn’t know you could beat the opponent that way or show me some weaknesses of opponents that maybe are not so visible that he’s seen, and those I’m able to exploit now a bit more maybe.”
Federer is also of the view that apart from Nadal there are still other players in the circuit who can make an impact this season.
“Well, I think it’s a big pity last year that Davydenko faded away with an injury.  Del Potro, the same thing, and Gonz?lez also had one, for instance, and Tommy Haas also had a major injury.  So there are some big players missing at the very top.
“I felt like if Del Potro and Davydenko could have played a full season, they would have had a chance early on in the season also to battle for world No. 1.  Because of injury, they couldn’t do that.  I think this year is very interesting because Davydenko, we know he’s fit and healthy again. He’s been playing for a little bit.
“Del Potro is going to be very interesting to follow.  The other guys, of course, I hope can come back and find their form that they had before.  I think it’s interesting times right now in tennis, and I’m excited playing against all those guys.”