Roger Federer is hoping to move ever closer to his 1,000th career victory this week when he begins his 2015 season at the Brisbane International.

The Swiss ace needs four more victories to become the third player to record the magic number of career wins since the start of the Open Era in 1968. Jimmy Connors and Ivan Lendl are the only members of an exclusive club.

Federer played in Brisbane a year ago for the first when he lost to Australian Lleyton Hewitt in the final.

He says he is eager to go one better in 2015.

“I would love to win this event. I was close last year, after I had had a good week,” he told the ATP website.

With 73 tour level titles under his belt already the 33-year-old is still hungry for more and says there is always an eagerness to win new events.

“I always like lifting trophies in a place that I have never been able to. I am unbelievably pumped up for this week. It’s a really good field, with a lot of promising players,” Federer added.

The Swiss landed five ATP World Tour titles during 2014 but has been unable to add to his 17 Grand Slam successes since defeating Andy Murray in the 2012 Wimbledon decider.

His quest for Grand Slam success will begin once more when the Australian Open kicks off in Melbourne on January 19.

The world number two was pleased with his year in 2014 but remains desperate to add to his Grand Slam haul in the year ahead.

“I gave myself quite a few chances at the Slams. I want to go one step further, because being close is not quite good enough,” he added.