Federer goes for fifty

Roger Federer was today aiming for his 50th straight win on grass in the second round at Wimbledon.

The world number one, also seeking to equal Bjorn Borg’s modern-day record of five consecutive titles at the All England Club, was up against Argentina’s Juan Martin Del Potro.

And perhaps the Swiss star’s disliking for the new Centre Court, wide open to the elements without a roof, was behind the match being scheduled for Court One, while two-time finalist Andy Roddick opened proceedings on Centre against Thailand’s Danai Udomchoke.

“It was different, there was always a constant breeze from the one end, like in many of the stadiums around the world,” Federer said of Centre Court after his straight-sets win over Teimuraz Gabashvili on Monday.

“I definitely prefer the old one over this one right now, but obviously it’s a work in progress. We are all looking forward to next year but it definitely does look and play a bit different this year.”

Of course Federer would be a prohibitive favourite even if the match were played on a local park court without a net, but Del Potro did reach the quarter-finals in Nottingham recently, losing to the eventual champion Ivo Karlovic.

The 18-year-old also beat Thomas Johansson in the first round at Queen’s before losing to French Open champion Rafael Nadal, whom he also lost to at Roland Garros and in the fourth round of the Masters Series event in Miami.

Russia’s Marat Safin is also in action on Court one, although he will need someone to make the introductions before taking on qualifier Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan.

“I don’t even know how Qureshi looks unfortunately,” said the 27-year-old Russian, who could face Federer in round three.

“I guess he’s playing pretty good tennis if he qualified and won a three-set match in the first round.

“I’m just missing a little bit of confidence. Everything is down to confidence. Even if you’re playing bad, you win a couple of matches, then you might have a surprise and start to play well and you start to make some results.

“I’ll play the next match, and I face Federer in the third round. That’s my goal, and then see how it’s going to go.

“I have no confidence at the moment because I’m not winning a lot of matches lately, because I’ve been struggling for the past couple of months, more than a couple of months.

“So how are you going to build up the confidence? The confidence comes with winning matches and playing a lot of semi-finals, finals. The last time I played the semi-final was in March, so that’s where my confidence has left me.”