Federer's drive for five begins with Russian

Jun 22, 2007, 12:30 GMT

Wimbledon, England - Roger Federer will begin his quest for a fifth straight Wimbledon title against someone who has never played on the lawns of the All England Club, as the draw for this year's third Grand Slam event was unveiled Friday.

The top-seeded Federer is again the overwhelming favorite on the hallowed grass courts of the London suburb and will open his fortnight against Russia's Teimuraz Gabashvili. Gabashvili has never played at Wimbledon and his first two ventures into Grand Slam play this year ended with first-round losses at both the Australian and French Opens.

Federer is trying to become the first man to win five straight Wimbledon crowns since the great Bjorn Borg accomplished the feat from 1976-80. His opening match next week will be his first on grass this year, as the Swiss star did not play any of the Wimbledon tuneup events. He pulled out of the warmup at Halle, Germany last week on the heels of his loss to Rafael Nadal in the French Open final.

Nadal, who lost to Federer in last year's Wimbledon final, is seeded second this year and will open play against American Mardy Fish. Another American, Andy Roddick, is the third seed. He lost a pair of Wimbledon finals to Federer in 2004 and '05 before a third-round finish last year and is slated to take on fellow American Justin Gimelstob in the first round.

Roddick is in Federer's half of the draw and can only face the Swiss superstar in the semifinals.

Other potential opponents for Federer include two-time Grand Slam champion Marat Safin of Russia in the third round, 13th-seeded German Tommy Haas in the fourth and American James Blake or Fernando Gonzalez of Chile in the quarterfinals.

The ninth-seeded Blake has never made it past the third round at Wimbledon and will open with Russia's Igor Andreev, who will get another chance to eliminate an American in the first round of a Grand Slam. Andreev was a surprise quarterfinalist at the French Open after taking out Roddick in the first round at Roland Garros.

Roddick's potential opponents include Slovakia's Dominik Hrbaty in round three and Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic or Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic in the fourth round. Hrbaty's never been past the fourth round at Wimbledon and Ljubicic has never reached the round of 16, but has advanced to the final at this week's Ordina Open. Stepanek was a surprise quarterfinalist last year.

Britain's Andy Murray is a possible quarterfinal foe for Roddick, although the eighth seed has been battling a wrist injury that kept him out of the French Open. Murray, Britain's latest hope to end the host country's long title drought, could face the nation's previous great hope -- Tim Henman -- in the third round.

Nadal's half of the draw includes a potential third-round matchup with two- time Wimbledon semifinalist Sebastien Grosjean of France and a possible fourth-rounder against Germany's Florian Mayer, who was a quarterfinalist in his first trip to Wimbledon three years ago. Seventh-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych and 11th-seeded Spaniard Tommy Robredo could be quarterfinal foes for the three-time French Open champ.

A couple of top-flight grass court players dot the other half of Nadal's portion of the draw, as it features 2002 Wimbledon champ Lleyton Hewitt of Australia and his opponent in that year's final, David Nalbandian of Argentina. Hewitt, seeded 16th this year, would have to get past fourth-seeded Serb Novak Djokovic in the fourth round. Nalbandian, meanwhile, could meet 2006 semifinalist Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus in the third round or sixth- seeded Russian Nikolay Davydenko in the fourth. Davydenko, however, has just one match win in five appearances at Wimbledon.

Play at the All England Club is scheduled to start Monday, June 25.

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