Andy Murray and wife Kim are expecting their second child

Rafael Nadal has warned his Wimbledon rivals he will be a major threat to their title dreams if he can survive the treacherous first week at the All England Club. Asked if he would play his opening match on Monday, Murray said: “I hope so, that’s the plan”.

“I’m practising again later”. I can’t see him winning.

Nadal, meanwhile, completed his most dominant French Open triumph to date in June when he thrashed Stan Wawrinka to secure an astonishing 10th title at Roland Garros.

And Ivan Lendl, Murray’s coach, said: “Practice has gone well”.

On the women’s side, the game is wide open and with former world top seed Serena Williams and the recently returned Maria Sharapova not playing this year, favourites such as Romania’s Simona Halep, five-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams, Germany’s Angelique Kerber – now the top seed – and Britain’s Johanna Konta are contenders for the title.

Federer said: ” That was the decision for me – no compromise really. Whatever is happening in his life has been distracting to him, and I don’t know if Agassi or anybody is going to cure that.

The 31-year-old Scot, who won the Queen’s Club doubles title with Brazilian Bruno Soares, said the constant focus on the top players was undermining the quality of tennis the rest of the field was capable of producing on the tour.

“Even though I was happy on the clay for a couple days, I just felt like, you know what, anything other than winning there feels like I’m not giving myself the best chance for Wimbledon”. Since 2012, Nadal has failed to advance beyond the fourth round.

With the defending women’s champion Serena Williams taking time out to give birth to her first child, current women’s world number one Angelique Kerber will open her match on Tuesday against a qualifier.

The man Nadal defeated in the final, Switzerland’s Stanislav Wawrinka, is seeded fifth.

Roger Federer’s fantastic Australian Open run, ending with a finals victory over old rival Rafael Nadal, was one of the great moments in sports this year.

Tournament favourite Federer has been drawn in the third quarter and will open his campaign against Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine. He recently beat Djokovic in the Italian Open final to become the youngest champion at a Masters event since – wait for it – Djokovic.

Only Marin Cilic and Juan Martin del Potro have managed to breach this private party since the summer of 2005 and, with Wimbledon upon us again next Monday, it’s hard to believe anyone from outside this quintet of stars will be holding aloft the men’s trophy on Sunday, July 16th.

His clay sabbatical showed above all how badly he wants another Wimbledon crown after reaching two finals and one semi-final in the last three years.

“As for the women’s – we have Kvitova and Pliskova, who are a long way up the market – but the women’s draw is tradtionally wide=open – look at the French, we had a 100/1 victor there”.