The gamut of emotions on Roger Federer’s face as he hit the winner that gave him his fifth Indian Wells title on Sunday ranged from exhilaration to wild-eyed surprise. It was as if he too couldn’t believe his latest feat, while on his comeback trail.

That Federer, a record-holder in almost every ATP tournament and across the four Majors, would still be caught unawares with the magnitude of his win was refreshing. It presented the other perennially eager-for-more attitude of the 18-time Grand Slam as he was unaffected by time and all that it brought along in his career.

No lack of flair for the maestro

“I’m not as surprised as I was at the [Australian Open], but still this comes as a big, big surprise to me, nevertheless, to win here again and beating the players that I did and the way I did,” said Federer about his fifth Indian Wells title. “[But] the dream run continues. The fairytale of the comeback that I have already shown in Australia.”

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His runup to Sunday’s final against Stanislas Wawrinka, in many ways, lacked the same intensity as the Australian Open, when he became the first player since Mats Wilander to win a Grand Slam title after defeating four top-10 players consecutively. Parallelly, it was also similar to the two full weeks he had at Melbourne Park in that he had to make his way past a tough quarter, now acclaimed as the Quarter of Death, which had him rout his long-time rival Rafael Nadal before eventually playing – and triumphing – against Wawrinka.

Throughout the fortnight, in each match he played, the 35-year-old made his win look easy and his opponents as mere appendages to the story he spun. Up until the final, he had not been broken once and the only player who saw a break-point chance on his racquet was Nadal, before Federer obliterated that chance away swiftly.

Equally fleetly has then come about the Basel native’s 90th ATP title, despite the brief dip he had during the Dubai Open, when he lost to Evgeny Donskoy after having three match points. While Federer had gone on to maintain after his Dubai Open to the Russian that he wasn’t sure how and when the match turned, following his win on Sunday, he talked about the changes that had been wrought to his 2017 season after his second title of the year. “It’s an absolutely huge start to the year for me. Last year I didn’t win any titles. I don’t think I was in any finals except Brisbane. The change is dramatic, and it feels great.”

Peering cautiously through to the winding season ahead

Dramatic or not, Federer was also prompt to acknowledge that the repeated successes in these two months were also directly influenced by his training during his protracted his off-season break in 2016. “I think it was the work that I had in November [and] December,” the world No 6 had said after his third-round win over Steve Johnson at Indian Wells. “It’s weird, you know, but you just feel like it’s paying off, you know. Because I hit so many balls at practice, you get much more rhythm and eventually you play points and sets and you realise all that rhythm, you almost don’t need it.”

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Correlating it to his speech on Sunday, Federer added, “In November [and] December, when I realised things were going well, and we had a meeting about what the goals are for the season in terms of rankings and the goal was to be top-eight by after Wimbledon. So I’m there much, much faster. It’s great, but you definitely have to reassess your goals and see, where do you go from here? Because this was not part of the plan, to win Australia and Indian Wells, I can tell you that.”

And, while the Swiss revelled in his unexpected fount of title runs by further entrenching his place atop the Race to London, where he leads the second-placed Nadal by almost twice as many points, he was also curiously circumspect about the coming fortnight, where he is expected to join the ATP circuit in Miami.

“I think now it’s really important for me to rest up,” began the 25-time Masters champion. “I hope I can play as late as possible going to Miami. Then I will make the plan for the remainder of the season, especially on clay, after Miami. I know how hard it is to win back-to-back Indian Wells and Miami titles. That’s why again I sort of go to Miami knowing it’s going to be really difficult. It always starts at zero. You have to get yourself up for the first rounds.”