Wimbledon 2015: Roger Federer eyes record 8th title after confidence boosting

Federer will take on Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia in his opener, as he goes for his record eighth Wimbledon title – and likely his last before the 34-year-old hangs up his racquet.

The 28-year old Serbian is set to open the matches per Wimbledon tradition at the Centre Court with a game against No. 33 Philipp Kohlschrieber.

But she is determined to not allow these last two years to bother her play this year.

Japan’s Kei Nishikori, the fifth seed, meets Italy’s Simone Bolelli while Australian 26th seed Nick Kyrgios, who knocked out Nadal 12 months ago, opens play on Court Two against Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman.

But such Paris disappointments have previously worked in his favour.

Asked to assess her place in history and her chances of achieving the calender Slam, Roger Federer said: “When she plays on her terms you would think Wimbledon and the US Open would be the easier ones to win, especially with her serve”. She’ll also be one title shy of taking all four majors in the same calendar year, a feat that hasn’t been repeated since Graf clinched all four in 1988 plus Olympic gold.

The top-seeded American opened her quest for a true Grand Slam with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Margarita Gasparyan of Russian Federation on Monday in the first round of Wimbledon.

Despite Wawrinka’s win over Djokovic this month, it’s the 28-year-old Serb who remains the favorite at Wimbledon. “It’s been a really good last week in Halle”, he added. I would be very happy to get to the final against Serena. “I play against Kohlschreiber in the first round there, which is one of the toughest first rounds, so I have to focus on that”.

While Hewitt is the latest of his grand slam final victims to hang up their rackets, following in the footsteps of Mark Philippoussis, Marat Safin, Andy Roddick and Andre Agassi, Federer is in no hurry to slip on the slippers just yet.

The ex- world No. 1 Venus is a five-time Wimbledon champ and three-time runner-up.

He then clinched the Stuttgart grasscourt title, which only proved to be a false dawn as just days later the 29-year-old was losing to Alexander Dolgopolov in his Queen’s opener.

While Williams may not have anticipated being challenged in her first-round matchup, it’s safe to say that she knows she can’t afford to let her guard down for one moment.

Sharapova stunned Serena in the 2004 Wimbledon final and was the 2011 runner-up to Petra Kvitova. Despite Wawrinka’s second major title at the French Open, the dominance of the sport’s four heavyweights is unlikely to be seriously threatened at Wimbledon where Lleyton Hewitt, in 2002, was the last champion from outside the “Big Four”.

World No. 6 Tomas Berdych was runner-up in 2010, but has since only made the quarter finals on one occasion.

Djokovic has been freakishly consistent at majors over the past few years: He hasn’t lost before the quarterfinals of a major since the 2009 French Open.

The defending champion revealed his reason and it was because he needed to prepare fully for the upcoming tournament.

Can Serena Williams win her sixth Wimbledon in 2015? “It’s important to be ready, to feel good physically, to move well”.

But he admitted that there was more to his absence in the traditional Wimbledon practice events this year than just following a past pattern. An early loss at Wimbledon can take her out of the Top 20 in the WTA rankings as she was a finalist here previous year. It wouldn’t surprise me if she won. I had one of the best season starts in my career. “So I definitely think the week is really going to help a lot of players”. Also being the youngest of five really made me have to scrap and be tougher. It’s been only two years that I’ve been winning some big titles.