(Reuters) - World number three Roger Federer said via Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) on Thursday that he will return from knee surgery a little earlier than expected at the Miami Open next week.
Federer, using a series of emojis, indicated a flight from Europe to the United States, followed by symbols of an orange, sunshine, a palm tree, a dolphin, a thumbs-up and finally a link to the Miami Open's Twitter account.
The 17-times grand slam champion, who has not played since January's Australian Open, had said three weeks ago via Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) that he planned to delay his comeback until the Monte Carlo Masters in April.
The Miami Open will be played from March 23-April 3.
Federer had arthroscopic knee surgery in Switzerland last month to repair a torn meniscus, having suffered the injury away from a tennis court the day after his Australian Open run ended in the semi-finals.
He withdrew from the ABN AMRO (AS:ABNd) World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam, the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships and the March 10-20 BNP Paribas (PA:BNPP) Open at Indian Wells in California.
The Swiss maestro has rarely missed any tournaments for health reasons during his 18-year professional career.
In 2005 Federer was out of action for six weeks while he recovered from foot injury and during 2008 he was troubled by a bout of mononucleosis and back problems.