Roger Federer has attracted a small but enthusiastic crowd to his open practice session at RAC Arena tonight.

It’s the third straight year Federer has played at the Perth event and opened a practice session to the public pre-tournament.

But while he attracted about 6000 in the past few years, tonight’s saw a more modest turn out of about 1500 people ahead of his opening match against Great Britain’s Cameron Norrie on Sunday night.

German star Angelique Kerber and Federer’s Swiss teammate Belinda Bencic, who played off in last summer’s final, entertained the crowd before Federer took the court just after 6pm.

Federer, 37 chatted to the crowd for a few minutes before he began hitting with Spanish veteran David Ferrer, describing his trip to the Pinnacles yesterday and revealing he took his children to the beach today.

The world No.3 and 20-time grand slam singles winner was all in white, with touches of pink on his shoes.