Federer eyes Borg record, fourth title

After failing in his bid to snatch Rafael Nadal's claycourt crown, Roger Federer will try to mimic the Spaniard by breaking a record and then retaining one of his own grand slams this fortnight at Wimbledon...

Last month Nadal opened his successful defence of the French Open by beating Guillermo Vilas's record of 53 consecutive wins on clay and Federer will surpass Bjorn Borg's grasscourt streak of 41 wins in a row if he wins his first round match today.

Nobody sensible would bet against either that or the Swiss going on to join Borg and Pete Sampras as the only men in the professional era to win four consecutive titles at the home of lawn tennis.

Federer's dominance on grass is absolute and the series of close shaves he survived recently at Halle - notably saving four match points in the quarter-finals against Belgian Olivier Rochus - will only have enhanced his aura of invincibility.

That tournament allowed the Swiss to ease the psychological damage of his defeat in Paris by Nadal, a loss that prevented him becoming only the third man to hold all four grand slams at once.

"Now when I go to Wimbledon people will not ask me about Paris, but about Halle," Federer said. "That's great mentally. It paid off that I came and that makes me even more happy."

Ever modest, Federer likes to point out that Borg's 41 wins were all achieved at Wimbledon, while his own run includes four victories at the less competitive Halle event.

He is also taking nothing for granted in the first round.

"It's very difficult to open the tournament in Wimbledon," he said. "It's maybe a privilege and an honour, but at the same time you can be the first guy out of the tournament. So, there's a lot of pressure."

Such talk will be of little comfort to his chief rivals at the All England Club, led by Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt.

Roddick has been knocked out of Wimbledon for the past three years by Federer, once in the semi-finals and in each of the last two finals. Hewitt, the 2002 Wimbledon champion, has lost nine in a row against the Swiss, including in last year's semi-finals at Wimbledon and in the quarter-finals in 2004.

"No one's been able to do it the last three years and no one's really come that close either," said Hewitt who impressively won his fourth Queen's Club title eight days ago.

"It's going to take someone to play an awfully good match, especially over five sets, to beat him at Wimbledon."

Nadal ready to play

Roddick lost in the semi-finals at Queen's to compatriot James Blake but believes he is playing the way he needs to if he is to challenge his Swiss nemesis.

"I feel like I'm serving well, I feel like I'm returning well," he said. "I feel prepared for Wimbledon, which obviously is the big goal."

Nadal's lack of familiarity with slippery grass means he has never been beyond round three at Wimbledon but showed promising signs in a run to the Queen's quarter-finals, where he took a set off Hewitt before retiring with a sore shoulder.

The 20-year-old said last weekend he was ready to play at Wimbledon despite not having fully recovered from his shoulder injury.

Despite holding the number two seeding, Nadal entertains little hope of actually winning the grasscourt grand slam.

"I don't think I will leave as champion this year," he said.

Argentine David Nalbandian, the 2002 runner-up to Hewitt, and another American, the in-form Blake, may have more realistic hope than the Spaniard, together with rangy Croatian player Mario Ancic.

Ancic was the last player to beat Federer on a grasscourt - in the 2002 first round at Wimbledon.

That victory occurred 10 years after Andre Agassi won his only Wimbledon crown and the 36-year-old Las Vegan is likely to receive the biggest cheer of all on what is expected to be his 14th and final appearance at the tournament.