The top seed and 16-time Grand Slam champion will begin his title defence against Colombian world No.65 Alejandro Falla in the opening match on Centre Court at 1pm on Monday and insists he is happy with his game despite some disappointing results since winning the Australian Open in January.
"I definitely think every time I play I'll have a chance to win here, there's no doubt."
"It hurt. It was disappointing," the Swiss said of early defeats at ATP Masters 1000 events in Indian Wells, Miami and Rome in the spring, "but I think I found my game again in Madrid. Played well there in Paris. In Halle I think the performances were good. That's why I'm confident for Wimbledon now."
Federer has a chance to equal Pete Sampras' record tally of seven Wimbledon men's singles titles this year and believes the way his game is suited to grass will provide another boost to his confidence. "Since I came here as a junior and since I beat Pete here in 2001 and I won my first Wimbledon here in 2003, I definitely think every time I play I'll have a chance to win here, there's no doubt," he said. "But we all know how hard it is to win Grand Slam titles. But I think with the experience I have on this surface, the experience can pull me through many matches actually maybe I would be struggling with [at other venues]."
"I felt like what I saw was the old classic Rafa on clay hardly losing sets and matches. That's what we got from him. That's why it's going to be incredibly hard to beat him here at Wimbledon."
Federer arrives at The Championships as world No.2 after Spain's Rafael Nadal moved above him in the ATP World Tour singles rankings in early June and the Swiss admits that his Spanish friend and rival looks back to his best. Twelve months ago injury denied Nadal the chance to defend the Wimbledon title the left-hander won in 2008 and Federer says it's great to see him return to SW19 fit and healthy.
"I'm happy he's back," the top seed said. "I want him to play every tournament. I felt like what I saw was the old classic Rafa on clay hardly losing sets and matches. That's what we got from him. That's why it's going to be incredibly hard to beat him here at Wimbledon."
Federer also puts Great Britain's Andy Murray up there as a title contender despite the world No.4's recent patchy form. "I think regardless of what happened between here and the Australian Open, Andy is one of the big favourites for this tournament. You have to maybe ignore a little bit what happened in between [Australia and now] and remember the last time you played a best‑of‑five-set match. This is when he was very tough. I think that's why maybe it favours the big guys. Andy's obviously one of them."
While fine-tuning his Wimbledon preparations over the past few days, Federer said he'd also found time to enjoy the World Cup - particularly his country's shock 1-0 defeat of Nadal's Spain in the opening group matches.
Ironically, Federer's first round contest against Falla on Monday clashes with Switzerland's second match of the tournament against Chile which kicks off at 3pm BST, but he reassured his army of fans that he'll try to keep his mind on his tennis. "You think I'll just like leave the court at 3 o'clock? That's not going to happen quite yet," he joked. "Maybe I can install a little screen on Centre Court on the change of ends!"
Date: 20.06.2010, Source: Wimbledon
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