Djokovic and Federer on collision course

Defending champion Novak Djokovic and six-time winner Roger Federer were once again set on a Grand Slam collision course when they were placed in the same half of the Wimbledon draw yesterday.

World number one Djokovic, who swept past Federer in straight sets in the French Open semi-finals earlier this month, could meet the Swiss again in the last four.

The top-seeded Serb will start his Wimbledon campaign against Spain’s Juan Carlos Ferrero with Czech Tomas Berdych, the 2010 runner-up, a potential quarter-final opponent.

Federer, who has lost in the quarter-finals in the last two years, takes on another Spaniard, Albert Ramos.

The third seeded Federer, still one title shy of Pete Sampras’s record of seven at the All England Club, is scheduled to face Serb eighth seed Janko Tipsarevic in the last eight.

Second seed Rafael Nadal, the 2008 and 2010 champion, and fresh from a record seventh French Open title, takes on Brazil’s Thomaz Bellucci.

Fourth-seeded Briton Andy Murray, who has lost in the semi-finals in the last two years to Nadal, is scheduled to meet the Spaniard again in the last four, but first he must get past wily Russian Nikolay Davydenko in his opener.

In the women’s draw, top seed Maria Sharapova begins against Australia’s Russian-born Anastasia Rodionova.

Sharapova has beaten Rodionova four times in four meetings without dropping a set.

Unseeded Kim Clijsters, a four-time Grand Slam title winner who will retire after the US Open, is in the same quarter as the Russian and begins against fellow former world number one Jelena Jankovic.

Defending champion Petra Kvitova, the fourth seed, starts her campaign against Akgul Amanmuradova, of Uzbekistan.