Poor form of Murray no reason to count him out says Federer

The world No 4 has failed to get past the quarter-finals in any tournament since losing to Federer in his second major final at the Australian Open in January.

The Swiss star and world No 3 Novak Djokovic find themselves in a similar boat, but Federer feels the British fans have plenty of cause for optimism.

"I think, regardless of what happened between here and the Australian Open, Andy is one of the big favourites for this tournament," he said.

"It's been for me, for Djokovic and for Murray to some degree a bit of a disappointing last few months. But I think Murray also played incredible tennis at the Australian Open.

"So here we are again at grand slam play. You have to maybe ignore a little bit what happened in between and remember the last time you played a best-of-five-sets match. This is when he was very tough."

Murray, will play Czech Jan Hajek tomorrow.

Former junior Wimbledon champion Laura Robson will make her Centre Court debut today when she faces fourth seed Jelena Jankovic.

The 16-year-old British prospect, who won the girls' title in 2008, was handed a tough first-round draw, just as she was 12 months ago when she lost in three sets to Daniela Hantuchova. Robson and Jankovic, will be second on Centre, with defending men's champion Federer opening matters against Colombian Alejandro Falla.

Last year's two runners-up, Venus Williams and Andy Roddick, begin their campaigns on Court One against Rossana De Los Rios and Rajeev Ram.

British women's No 1 Elena Baltacha starts against Croatian Petra Martic on Court 12, while Melanie South and Katie O'Brien also play their opening matches.

ORDER OF PLAY

Centre court – 1pm: (1) Roger Federer (Swi) v Alejandro Falla (Col), Laura Robson (Gbr) v (4) Jelena Jankovic (Ser), (3) Novak Djokovic (Ser) v Olivier Rochus (Bel).

Court No 1 – 1pm: Kevin Anderson (Rsa) v (7) Nikolay Davydenko (Rus), Rajeev Ram (USA) v (5) Andy Roddick (USA), Rossana De Los Rios (Par) v (2) Venus Williams (USA).

Court 2 – 12pm: (8) Kim Clijsters (Bel) v Maria Elena Camerin (Ita), Mardy Fish (USA) v Bernard Tomic (Aus), (5) Francesca Schiavone (Ita) v Vera Dushevina (Rus), Maximo Gonzalez (Arg) v (15) Lleyton Hewitt (Aus).