Roger Federer declared his week in Monte Carlo "all positive" despite a quarterfinal defeat to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, saying he was satisfied with his first tournament following surgery.
Federer won his first two rounds in straight sets before falling to Tsonga in a three-setter.
The world No. 3 hadn’t competed since the Australian Open.
"Number one, it’s good to play a tournament after having had surgery,” Federer said. “Number two, it was good to play one match. It was good to have a match with a rest, then to play again … Now it was good to play back-to-back, yesterday and today. Then it was good to play two hours [and] 10 [minutes in the quarterfinals]. The pre-tournament stuff I was able to do, I trained really hard. My fitness coach was here.
"We practiced well on the tennis court, as well. It’s been a really good past couple of weeks now for me, so I’m very happy ... It was nice to play an intense match, I'm happy [with the way] the body reacted. So many good things this week. It's all positive."
Federer noted that his serving was "still up and down," but otherwise he played well.
"Backhand is working well,” the 17-time Grand Slam champion said. “The forehand is there … I’m returning a lot better."
He still does not know what his next tournament will be, but said he would not play any smaller events before the next Masters tournament. He plans to announce in the next week-and-a-half whether he will play Madrid, and take a few more days before saying if he will play Rome as well.
"I definitely won't play the next couple of weeks,” he clarified. “And Madrid, I'll decide probably like 10 days from now.”
Monte Carlo was Federer's first clay-court event of the season.