Bob Larson's Tennis News | <u>Wimbledon</u>: Men's Preview

· Four-time Roger Federer attempts to extend his 24-match winning streak against German players when he faces Tommy Haas. Haas has lost his last eight meetings against Federer, with his last victory coming in 2002, the same year that Federer suffered his last defeat against any German man. In advancing to the round of 16 here for the first time, Haas has now made round of 16 appearances at all four Grand Slam events.

· 2004 and 2005 runner-up Andy Roddick bids to win his ninth straight match when he plays the unseeded Paul-Henri Mathieu for a place in the quarterfinals. While Roddick is hoping to reach the Wimbledon quarterfinals for the fourth time, victory for Mathieu would hand him his first appearance in a Grand Slam quarterfinal.

· Mathieu’s countrymen, No. 12 seed Richard Gasquet and wild card Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, meet in the fifth all-French match-up at Wimbledon this year. Both Gasquet and Tsonga are bidding to reach the first Grand Slam quarterfinals of their careers; Tsonga would be the first wild card to progress to the last eight here since Goran Ivanisevic went all the way to the title in 2001.

· 2003 Roland Garros champion Juan Carlos Ferrero attempts to reach the Wimbledon last eight for the first time, and so complete a full set of quarterfinal appearances at all four majors. He plays Janko Tipsarevic, who is enjoying his best Grand Slam performance at 2007 Wimbledon and has fought through three consecutive five-set matches to reach his first Grand Slam round of 16.

Head-to-head: Federer leads 8-2

Federer and Haas meet for the eleventh time in their career and the third time on grass. Although Haas won two of their first three meetings, he has not defeated Federer since the 2002 Australian Open, where he defeated the Swiss player in the round of 16 en route to the semifinal. Federer is bidding for his ninth successive victory here against his opponent.

· Federer began the fourth defence of his Wimbledon title with a 63 62 64 victory over Russian Teimuraz Gabashvili in the first round. He then defeated Juan-Martin Del Potro 62 75 61 in the second round and No. 26 seed Marat Safin 61 64 76.

· Federer is one of four men in the top half to advance to the round of 16 without dropping a set.

· Federer advanced to the final here without dropping a set for the first time last year. At the 2007 Australian Open, Federer became the first man to win a Grand Slam title without dropping a set since Bjorn Borg at 1980 Roland Garros.

· This is Federer’s ninth appearance at Wimbledon, having played here every year since making his debut as a wild card in 1999.

· Federer is bidding to reach the quarterfinals for the 13^th successive Grand Slam event. The last time that he failed to reach the quarterfinals in a major was at 2004 Roland Garros where he lost in the third round to Gustavo Kuerten.

· Federer is bidding to become the fourth player in Wimbledon history to win the men’s singles title for five successive years. He won the 2003 title as No. 4 seed, defeating Mark Philippoussis 76 62 76 in the final. As No. 1 seed, he defended his title for the last three years: in 2004 defeating Andy Roddick 46 75 76 64 in the final; in 2005 again defeating Roddick 62 76 64; and in 2006 defeating Rafael Nadal 60 76 67 63.

· Only seven men in history have won five or more consecutive titles at one Grand Slam event, and Bjorn Borg is the only player to have achieved this feat in the Open Era. Borg was also the last man to win five or more Wimbledon titles, the Swede collecting all five of his trophies at the All England Club in 1976-80. [For more details see page 1 of the Preview.]

· Federer is one of eight men in history to win at least four Wimbledon titles in his career, whether consecutive or otherwise. He is now bidding to become just the fifth man in history to win five career Wimbledon titles. Borg and Sampras are the only men to win five here in the Open Era, Sampras going on to win seven titles. [For more details see page 2 of the Preview.]

· Against Germans, Federer is on a 24-match winning streak. His last loss to a German player came on grass at 2002 Halle, where he lost 46 64 64 to Nicolas Kiefer in the semifinals. Overall, he has a 36-8 win-loss record against German players, and 10-1 against players from that nation in Grand Slams. His only loss to a German in a major came at the 2002 Australian Open, where he fell to today’s opponent Haas.

· Federer has now won a record 51 consecutive matches on grass court. He established a new Open Era record winning streak on the surface in the first round at last year’s Wimbledon, breaking Bjorn Borg’s previous mark of 41 straight grass court match wins. Federer’s last grass court defeat was in the first round of 2002 Wimbledon, when he lost to qualifier Mario Ancic 63 76 63.

· During his 51-match grass court winning streak, Federer has defeated 40 different players from 20 different countries through his third round defeat of Safin here, and lost 13 sets (dropping no more than one set per match). His pre-Wimbledon total of 48 matches was compiled through winning both Halle and Wimbledon 2003-06.

· Federer has now won 31 matches in a row at Wimbledon. During that run, he has dropped just five sets and has never been extended past four sets.

· Federer arrived at 2007 Wimbledon having not played a grass court tournament ahead of The Championships for the first time in his career. (He made his debut here in 1999.) He withdrew from his usual warm-up event, Halle, citing fatigue. The last man to win Wimbledon without playing a grass court tournament ahead of The Championships was Andre Agassi in 1992.

· Pete Sampras played a grass court warm-up event ahead of all seven of his Wimbledon triumphs. The only year in his entire career that he did not play a warm-up event, in 1996, Sampras failed to win the Wimbledon title, losing in the quarterfinals to eventual champion Richard Krajicek.

· In contrast to Sampras, Bjorn Borg did not play a warm-up event in any of the five years that he triumphed at Wimbledon. Borg did contest a warm-up event in 1974, losing in the first round at Nottingham, and went on to lose in the third round at Wimbledon that year.

· Federer’s eight career grass court titles put him in joint-third place on the list of grass court titles won in the Open Era.

Open Era grass court title leaders

· Although Federer has won three titles so far in 2007, at the Australian Open – where he became the first man to win a Grand Slam title without dropping a set since Bjorn Borg at 1980 Roland Garros – Dubai, and AMS Hamburg. However by his standards this season has been disappointing. In the spring he had a run of four straight tournament losses, his longest streak without winning a title since taking over the No. 1 ranking in February 2004. Federer fell in the second round at AMS Indian Wells to Guillermo Canas 75 62 (after a first round bye), and again to Canas, 76 26 76, in the round of 16 at AMS Miami. He reached the final at AMS Monte Carlo before losing to Rafael Nadal, and was upset by wild card Filippo Volandri 62 64 in the round of 16 at AMS Rome before returning to winning form at AMS Hamburg.

· Federer reached the Roland Garros final for the second year running, again falling to Rafael Nadal and so narrowly failing in his bid to hold all four Grand Slam titles at the same time, and complete a career Grand Slam.

· The last defending champion to lose in the Wimbledon round of 16 was Pete Sampras on his fourth defence in 2001. In total five defending champions have lost at this stage at Wimbledon in the Open Era. Only two defending champions have failed to reach the round of 16 at Wimbledon in the Open Era: Boris Becker in 1987 and Lleyton Hewitt in 2003. (Note: The champion did not return to defend the title on three occasions.)

· Pete Sampras was the last top seed to lose in the last 16 at Wimbledon in 2001. In the Open Era in total, five top seeds have lost at this stage. (Note: three No. 1 seeds have failed to reach the round of 16 at Wimbledon in the Open Era: Boris Becker in 1987, Jim Courier in 1992 and Lleyton Hewitt in 2003.)

· Federer is today starting his 179^th week as the No. 1 player in the world, having occupied the top spot every week since first gaining the No. 1 ranking on 2 February 2004.

· Haas defeated qualifier Zack Fleishman 63 64 62 in the first round, qualifier Tomas Zib 63 76 64 in the second and then dropped his first set of the tournament when he defeated No. 21 seed Dmitry Tursunov 16 64 76 64 in the third round.

· This is Haas’s first tournament since retiring in the opening round at AMS Rome in May with a right shoulder injury. He underwent surgery on the same shoulder in 2002-03.

· Having lost in his four previous third round appearances at Wimbledon, Haas has reached the round of 16 here for the first time in nine appearances.

· Last year, Haas reached the third round, as No. 19 seed, losing to Tomas Berdych 26 75 76 46 86. This was the last time he played on grass prior to this year’s Wimbledon.

· Haas has now reached the round of 16 at all four Grand Slam events. His best Grand Slam results have been at the Australian Open, where he has reached the semifinals three times (1999, 2002, 2007). He also reached the quarterfinals at the US Open (2004, 2006), and the round of 16 at Roland Garros (2002).

· Haas received his highest Wimbledon seeding this year at No. 13. His previous highest seeding at Wimbledon was in 1999, when as No. 14 seed he lost to Cedric Pioline 64 75 63 in the third round. Haas’s highest-ever Grand Slam seeding was No. 3 at both 2002 Roland Garros and 2002 US Open.

· Haas has won just one of 13 matches played against the world No. 1. His lone victory was against Andre Agassi 60 67 64 in the quarterfinals of the 1999 Grand Slam Cup. As well as having six straight losses to Federer in the time that he has been world No. 1, Haas was 0-4 against Pete Sampras, and 0-2 against Gustavo Kuerten, when they were the top-ranked players.

· Prior to this year’s Australian Open, Haas had never defeated a Top 10 player at a Grand Slam. His victories over No. 8-ranked David Nalbandian in the round of 16 and No. 3-ranked Nikolay Davydenko in the quarterfinals there marked his first Grand Slam wins over Top 10 players. Going into today’s match he has a 2-9 record against Top 10 players in Grand Slams. His career record versus Top 10 is now 37-57.

Event	Opponent	Rank	Haas’s result
1997 US Open	Marcelo Rios	10	l. 64 36 63 16 61 in R32
1999 Australian Open	Yevgeny Kafelnikov	10	l. 63 64 75 in SF
2001 Australian Open	Lleyton Hewitt	7	l. 75 76 64 in R64
2001 US Open	Lleyton Hewitt	4	l. 36 76 64 62 in R16
2004 Roland Garros	Juan Carlos Ferrero	4	l. 36 64 64 62 in R128
2004 US Open	Lleyton Hewitt	5	l. 62 62 62 in QF
2006 Australian Open	Roger Federer	1	l. 64 60 36 46 62 in R16
2006 US Open	Nikolay Davydenko	6	l. 46 67 63 64 64 in QF
2007 Australian Open	David Nalbandian	8	w. 46 63 62 63 in R16
2007 Australian Open	Nikolay Davydenko	3	w. 63 26 16 61 75 in QF
2007 Australian Open	Fernando Gonzalez	10	l. 61 63 61 in SF

· Haas is bidding to win four consecutive matches at tour level on grass for the first time in his career. This is the fourth time that he has won three successive matches on grass, having also done in reaching the semifinals at ’s-Hertogenbosch in 1999, and Halle in 2005 and 2006.

· Prior to his shoulder injury, Haas enjoyed a successful start to 2007. He reached his third Australian Open semifinal, as No. 12 seed losing to Fernando Gonzalez 61 63 61. He won his 11^th career title indoors at Memphis (d. Andy Roddick 63 62), and won all three singles rubbers in Germany’s Davis Cup victories over Croatia and Belgium, helping his country to reach the semifinals for the first time since 1995. (Germany will play Russia in Moscow in September).

· Haas won three titles in 2006, improving his ATP Ranking from No. 44 to No. 11 in 2006. He returned to the Top 10 on 29 January 2007 for the first time since 11 November 2002 and with the exception of five weeks in April and May has remained in the Top 10 since. He plays here ranked No. 10.

Head-to-head: Mathieu leads 1-0

· Roddick defeated fellow American Justin Gimelstob 61 75 76 in the first round, Danai Udomchoke 63 64 76 in the second round and leftie Fernando Verdasco 63 64 76 in the third round to extend his winning streak to eight matches.

· Roddick is one of four players in the top half of the draw, along with Roger Federer, Richard Gasquet and wild card Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, to reach this stage without dropping a set.

· Roddick is making his seventh successive appearance at Wimbledon, and has reached the round of 16 for the fourth time. He is bidding to reach the quarterfinals here for the fourth time, having yet to lose in the Wimbledon round of 16.

· Roddick has always reached at least the third round here. Last year, when he was also seeded No. 3, he was upset in the third round by Andy Murray 76 64 64.

· Roddick is the only American man to reach the round of 16 at this year’s Wimbledon. He was one of just two Americans to reach the third round here, and No. 9 seed James Blake lost his third round match to No. 20 seed Juan Carlos Ferrero. This is not the worst showing by American men in the round of 16 here – there have in fact been two years in the Open Era when no US men got this far: last year, and in 2002. The USA started with 14 men in the draw, the joint second-highest representation (with Spain) by a nation after France (15 players).

· Roddick plays a Frenchman today and is guaranteed to play another if he reaches the quarterfinals - either No. 12 Richard Gasquet or wild card Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Roddick has a 6-1 record versus Frenchmen in Grand Slams, having not lost to a player from the nation at majors since 2004 Roland Garros, when in his first Grand Slam meeting with a Frenchman, he lost to Olivier Mutis 36 63 67 63 62 in the second round. Roddick has a 37-9 career record against Frenchmen.

· Roddick has twice been Wimbledon runner-up, both times losing to Roger Federer. He fell 46 75 76 64 in the 2004 final and 62 76 64 in the 2005 final. He has been defeated by the eventual champion on four of his six previous Wimbledon appearances, losing to Federer 76 63 63 in the 2003 semifinals, and to Goran Ivanisevic 76 75 36 63 in the 2001 third round on his Wimbledon debut.

· Roddick was one of eight Grand Slam champions to start in the men’s singles draw, and is one of five still alive in the tournament, along with No. 1 seed Roger Federer and No. 20 Juan Carlos Ferrero, who are also through to the round of 16, and No. 2 Rafael Nadal and No. 16 Lleyton Hewitt, whose third round matches were delayed on Saturday,

· Roddick won his lone Grand Slam title at the 2003 US Open, defeating Juan Carlos Ferrero 63 76 63. He returned to the US Open final last year, losing to Roger Federer 62 46 75 61, taking his total number of appearances in Grand Slam finals to four.

· For the fourth time in five years, Roddick started Wimbledon having won at Queen’s. He collected the trophy there three straight years 2003-05, and after a semifinal loss to countryman James Blake in 2006, bounced back to win the title this year, saving a match point to defeat Nicolas Mahut 46 76 76 in the final.

· Queen’s was Roddick’s 22^nd career title, and first tournament victory of 2007. He also reached the final this season at Memphis (l. Tommy Haas 63 62) and the semifinals at the Australian Open (l. Roger Federer 64 60 62), San Jose (l. Andy Murray 76 64) and AMS Indian Wells (l. Rafael Nadal 64 63). Another highlight of Roddick’s season is compiling a 3-0 singles record to help the USA reach the Davis Cup semifinals (they play Sweden in Gothenburg in September).

· For the past five years, a player who has won one of the pre-Wimbledon grass court titles has gone on to win Wimbledon the same year. Federer won both Halle and Wimbledon 2003-06; prior to that, in 2002, Lleyton Hewitt won Queen’s before becoming Wimbledon champion. This year, Federer has not played a grass court warm-up event ahead of 2007 Wimbledon.

· Roddick’s four career grass court titles put him in third place among active players for titles won on the surface. Only three active men have won more than two grass court titles.

· Roddick is coached by 1974 and 1982 Wimbledon champion Jimmy Connors, who made his last appearance in the Wimbledon round of 16 in 1988, as No. 5 seed losing at this stage to Patrik Kuhnen 57 76 76 67 63.

· Mathieu defeated Radek Stepanek 76 62 62 in the first round, upset No. 17 seed David Ferrer 63 64 63 in the second round and then No. 15 seed Ivan Ljubicic 46 75 62 63 in the third round.

· Mathieu is making his fifth appearance at Wimbledon. Last year as No. 32 seed, he lost in the first round to 2003 runner-up Mark Philippoussis 57 76 63 76.

· Mathieu has equalled his best performance at any Grand Slam, having established a new best performance at Wimbledon just by reaching the third round. Mathieu’s previous best result here was reaching the second round on his debut in 2002, when he defeated Francisco Clavet in the first round before losing to David Nalbandian 76 76 63. In the intervening period, Mathieu had three straight first round losses at Wimbledon: in 2003, 2005 and 2006. (He missed the 2004 tournament with a wrist injury.)

· Mathieu has made two previous appearances in a Grand Slam round of 16. He advanced to the last 16 as a wild card at 2002 Roland Garros, losing to Andre Agassi 46 36 63 63 63, and at the 2006 Australian Open, losing to countryman Sebastien Grosjean 75 62 62.

· Mathieu is one of a record three Frenchmen already through to the round of 16 here, along with No. 12 seed Richard Gasquet and wild card Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who play each other in the round of 16. They could be joined by a fourth Frenchman, Gael Monfils, if he wins his delayed third round match against No. 6 seed Nikolay Davydenko. Previously, the highest number of Frenchmen to reach the Wimbledon round of 16 in the Open Era was two, which has occurred seven times.

· With Gasquet and Tsonga playing each other in the round of 16, there is guaranteed to be one French men’s quarterfinalist at 2007 Wimbledon. If Mathieu wins today and makes it two French quarterfinalists, France will have its joint-best showing in the Wimbledon quarterfinals in the Open Era, having previously had two men through to the last eight here in 1991 (Guy Forget and Thierry Champion). If Monfils wins his delayed third round match against Davydenko, there is a chance for there to be a record three Frenchmen in the last eight.

· Mathieu played the grass court events at Queen’s and Nottingham ahead of 2007 Wimbledon. He won two matches at Queen’s to reach the round of 16 (l. Dmitry Tursunov 67 63 63) and two matches at Nottingham to reach the quarterfinals (l. Jonas Bjorkman 62 63 64).

· By reaching the round of 16 here, Mathieu has won three successive grass court matches at tour level for the first time in his career. Before the start of the 2007 grass court season, Mathieu had never won back-to-back grass court matches, in ten tour tournaments played on the surface through the end of 2006. He had in fact had seven first round losses in those ten events. Mathieu has played all his career grass court matches at tour level.

· Mathieu won his third career title, and first title since 2002, at Casablanca in April this year. He defeated Marc Gicquel 63 75 in the semifinals and Albert Montanes 61 61 in the final. Mathieu’s other highlight this season was reaching the semifinals in Estoril the week after Casablanca, where he retired in the first set with a hip injury while trailing Richard Gasquet 3-1.

· At this year’s Australian Open, Mathieu was poised to win his first round match against Fernando Verdasco in straight sets when he rolled his right ankle and was forced to retire. He was leading 76 64 66 and 3-0 up in the tiebreak at the time. Mathieu missed the next month of the 2007 season recovering from the injury, returning at Las Vegas at the end of February.

· Mathieu was the French No. 3 in the w/c 25 June rankings, behind No. 1 Gasquet and No. 2 Clement.

Head-to-head: first meeting

This is the Gasquet’s and Tsonga’s first tour meeting. Although they are both French and very close in age, they have never played each other as professionals. However, they did meet three times on the ITF Junior Circuit with Gasquet winning each time.

Gasquet takes on Tsonga in the fifth all French match-up at Wimbledon this year. The most all-French match-ups here in the Open Era previously was three, those being in 2004. France was the most represented nation in the 2007 men’s draw: 15 French players started here.

Only six Frenchmen have reached the Wimbledon quarterfinals or better in the Open Era: Henri Leconte (1985-87); Thierry Champion (1991); Guy Forget (1991, 1992 and 1994); Cedric Pioline (1993, 1995, 1997 and 1999); Nicolas Escude (2001) and Sebastien Grosjean (2003-05). Either Gasquet or Tsonga will join them, and so will Paul-Henri Mathieu if he wins his round of 16 match against Andy Roddick today. Another Frenchman, Gael Monfils, could also still reach the quarterfinals although he has yet to play his delayed third round match against Nikolay Davydenko.

Gasquet and Tsonga are two of three Frenchmen to reach the round of 16 so far here this year, along with Mathieu, which is a Wimbledon Open Era record. The previous most Frenchmen through to the round of 16 at Wimbledon was two, which has happened on seven previous occasions. With Gasquet and Tsonga playing each other, France is guaranteed one quarterfinalist at 2007 Wimbledon, and if Mathieu and countryman Monfils also advance, there will be three Frenchmen in the last eight, a new Open Era record for Wimbledon. France’s previous best showing in the quarterfinals here was two men, Guy Forget and Thierry Champion having both lost in the quarterfinals in 1991.

Tsonga is the third Frenchmen that Gasquet has played at 2007 Wimbledon. With his wins over Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin in the second and third rounds here, Gasquet has improved his Grand Slam record against countrymen to 5-0. He had never played a Frenchman at Wimbledon before this year. Gasquet has a 19-9 career record against Frenchmen.

Gasquet and Tsonga are two of four men in the top half of the draw to have reached the round of 16 without dropping a set. The others are Roger Federer and Andy Roddick.

· Gasquet defeated qualifier Bohdan Ulihrach 63 64 64 in the opening round, qualifier Nicolas Mahut 64 63 64 in the second round and qualifier Edouard Roger-Vasselin 63 64 62 in the third round. This was the first time that Gasquet had faced three qualifiers in a row at any tournament.

· Gasquet is making his fourth consecutive appearance at Wimbledon. Last year, he lost in the first round to eventual champion Roger Federer 63 62 62.

· Gasquet is bidding to reach his first Grand Slam quarterfinal. He previously reached the round of 16 at Wimbledon in 2005, losing to David Nalbandian 64 76 60. He also reached the round of 16 at the 2005 and 2006 US Open, and the 2007 Australian Open.

· Gasquet has played two previous matches against wild cards at Grand Slam events and has a 2-0 record. He defeated Phillip Simmonds 61 63 61 in the first round at the 2006 US Open and Nicolas Mahut 63 62 62 in the first round at 2007 Roland Garros.

· Gasquet played the grass court warm-up events this year at Halle and Nottingham. He lost in the first round at Halle to Aisam Qureshi 76 64, and reached the quarterfinals at Nottingham. At Nottingham, Gasquet was bidding to create tournament history by winning the title for three consecutive years, but persistent rain forced his quarterfinal match against Arnaud Clement to be moved to indoor hard court - he lost 64 63.

· Gasquet’s best result on any surface to date this year was finishing runner-up at Estoril on clay, falling to Novak Djokovic 76 06 61. He was also a semifinalist at Sydney and a quarterfinalist at Adelaide, Marseille and AMS Monte Carlo.

· Gasquet began the Grand Slam year with a round of 16 finish at the Australian Open, defeating compatriot Gael Monfils 60 46 75 63 in the third round before losing to Tommy Robredo 64 62 36 64.

· Gasquet received his highest Wimbledon seeding this year at No. 12. He has only been seeded once before at Wimbledon, in 2005, when as No. 27 seed he lost to David Nalbandian in the round of 16 (see above). Gasquet’s highest-ever Grand Slam seeding was No. 11 at 2007 Roland Garros.

· Having won twice at Nottingham, Gasquet was one of six players starting in the draw to have won more than one grass court title. The others were Roger Federer, Lleyton Hewitt, Andy Roddick, Jonas Bjorkman and Thomas Johansson. [For more details see page 4 of the Preview.]

· Gasquet has won four titles in his career. As well as winning at Nottingham in 2005 and 2006, he was victorious on clay at Gstaad in 2006 and on indoor carpet at Lyon in the same year.

· Tsonga has reached the round of 16 on his Wimbledon debut. He defeated countryman Julien Benneteau 76 75 64 in the first round, Nicolas Lapentti 64 62 63 in the second round and Feliciano Lopez 63 76 63 in the third round.

· Tsonga’s three victories here are his first at a major. He lost in the first round to Andy Roddick at both 2005 Roland Garros (63 62 64) and the 2007 Australian Open (67 76 63 63). The first-set tiebreak that Tsonga and Roddick played at this year’s Australian Open stretched to 20-18, setting a new record for the longest-known tie break at the Australian Open and equalling the record for the longest-known tiebreak at any tournament.

· Tsonga is playing only his third Grand Slam event and has always played as a wild card.

· Tsonga was the only wild card to survive the first round here this year. He is the sixth different man to have reached the last 16 at Wimbledon as a wild card after Pat Cash (1986 and 1990), Mark Woodforde (1990), Andrew Foster (1993), Goran Ivanisevic (2001) and Mark Philippoussis (2002).

· Tsonga is now bidding to become just the third wild card to reach the quarterfinals at Wimbledon. The two men to have done this so far are Pat Cash in 1986 and Goran Ivanisevic in 2001, Ivanisevic going on to win the title. (Wild cards were introduced to Wimbledon in 1997.)

· Tsonga is looking to become the first debutant to reach the Wimbledon quarterfinals since Florian Mayer in 2004, Mayer losing in the quarterfinals to Lleyton Hewitt 64 62 46 76.

· Tsonga attempted to qualify for 2003 and 2004 Roland Garros and the 2004 US Open, but fell in the second qualifying round each time.

· Tsonga has won three matches at tour level for the first time. He won two successive tour-level matches for the first time at Queen’s last month as a qualifier, defeating Kristian Pless and defending champion Lleyton Hewitt in the first two rounds before falling to Marin Cilic 46 63 62.

· Prior to Queen’s, Tsonga won the Surbiton Challenger on grass, defeating Ivo Karlovic 63 76 in the final. This was Tsonga’s eighth challenger title and his second such title on grass, having won the Nottingham challenger in 2004.

· From the Surbiton Challenger through the third round here, Tsonga has won 13 of his 14 matches on grass this year (including qualifying at Queen’s).

· Tsonga reached the semifinals of the boys’ singles at 2003 Wimbledon (l. eventual champion Florin Mergea 64 67 64). He finished No. 2 on the ITF Junior World rankings behind Marcos Baghdatis in 2003, having won the US Open boys’ singles title that year.

· Since moving to the men’s tour, Tsonga has suffered several injuries. He didn’t play between November 2004 and March 2005 due to a herniated disc. He then contested just three tournaments between July 2005 and February 2006, retiring in one and conceding a walkover in another, due to shoulder, back and abdominal injuries. As a result of this inactivity, his ranking dropped from No. 133 on 23 May 2005 to No. 404 on 3 April 2006. Since then his ranking has risen to a career-high of No. 110.

· As a result of reaching the round of 16 here, Tsonga is projected to break into the Top 100 when the new rankings are published on 9 July 2007.

· Since returning to the circuit in February 2006, Tsonga has won five Challenger titles and four Futures titles.

Head-to-head: Ferrero leads 1-0

· Ferrero advanced to the round of 16 for the third time in seven Wimbledon appearances when he upset No. 9 seed James Blake 36 63 63 76 in the third round. In the first round he defeated Jan Hajek 67 46 63 62 75 followed by qualifier Gilles Muller 64 64 67 76 in the second.

· Ferrero is bidding to reach the Wimbledon quarterfinals for the first time, having lost his two previous round of 16 matches here. In 2003, as No. 3 seed, he lost at this stage to No. 13 seed Sebastien Grosjean 62 46 76 76 and in 2005, he fell to eventual champion Roger Federer 63 64 76.

· Wimbledon is the only Grand Slam event where Ferrero has failed to reach the quarterfinal stage. He advanced to the quarterfinals or better at 2000-03 Roland Garros, the 2003-04 Australian Open, and the 2003 US Open.

· Ferrero’s career highlight was winning the 2003 Roland Garros title, defeating Martin Verkerk 61 63 62 in the final. Roland Garros is the major at which Ferrero has enjoyed most success, having also finished runner-up there in 2002 and reached the semifinals in 2000-01. Ferrero was also runner-up at the 2003 US Open and a semifinalist at the 2004 Australian Open.

· Ferrero was one of 14 Spaniards to start in the draw here (the joint-second highest nation representation at 2007 Wimbledon behind France) and he is one of two Spaniards still alive in the competition, the other being Rafael Nadal.

· This is the sixth successive year that there has been Spanish representation in the round of 16. The highest number of Spaniards to reach the round of 16 at Wimbledon in the Open Era is three, which happened last year when David Ferrer, Feliciano Lopez and Rafael Nadal all made round of 16 appearances. Ferrer and Lopez lost at this stage but Nadal went on to reach the final, losing to Roger Federer.

· Ferrero is bidding to become the fifth Spanish man to advance to the Wimbledon quarterfinals in the Open Era after Andres Gimeno in 1970, Manuel Orantes in 1972, Feliciano Lopez in 2005 and Rafael Nadal last year. Of these four men, Gimeno and Orantes went on to reach the semifinals while Nadal finished as runner-up.

· Ferrero was won of eight Grand Slam champions to appear in the 2007 Wimbledon main draw, and five champions are still alive in this year’s competition, including Ferrero. The other four are Roger Federer, Lleyton Hewitt, Rafael Nadal and Andy Roddick.

· Ferrero has won 11 singles titles in his career, but none since 2003. He has eight clay court titles and three hard court titles but none on grass.

· Ferrero played just one match on grass before coming here, losing in the first round at ’s-Hertogenbosch to Carlos Berlocq 26 63 62.

· Ferrero’s best results of the year to date have been on clay. He reached the final at Costa do Sauipe in February (l. Guillermo Canas 76 62) and also won four matches to advance to the semifinals at AMS Monte Carlo (l. Roger Federer 63 64).

· Ferrero achieved the No. 1 spot in the rankings on 8 September 2003, after reaching the 2003 US Open final was ranked there for eight weeks. He is one of four men to have been ranked No. 1 still alive at this year’s Wimbledon, along with top seed Roger Federer, No. 3 seed Andy Roddick and No. 16 seed Lleyton Hewitt.

· Tipsarevic advanced to the round of 16 of a Grand Slam for the first time at Wimbledon, by winning three five-set matches and improving his five-set record to 10-3. He began his Wimbledon campaign by defeating Alexander Peya 46 36 63 64 63 in the first round, Florent Serra 63 62 67 36 62 in the second and No. 5 seed Fernando Gonzalez 63 36 63 46 86 in the third round.

· In defeating Gonzalez, Tipsarevic recorded his first career victory over a Top 10 player.

· Tipsarevic is the fourth man to win all of his first three matches in five sets at Wimbledon in the Open Era, behind Russell Simpson (1982), Alex Radulescu (1996) and Jason Stoltenberg (1998).

· No man has played four five-set matches through the first four rounds at Wimbledon in the Open Era. However, Jan Kodes played a record four consecutive five-set matches at Wimbledon in 1974, from the second round through to the quarterfinals. He lost his quarterfinal match 36 63 63 68 63 to Jimmy Connors.

· Five men have played four successive five-set matches at a Grand Slam tournament, but all of them lost their fourth match. However, at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, Goran Ivanisevic played and won four five-set matches in a row en route to a semifinal finish.

· Tipsarevic has posted his best Grand Slam result by reaching the round of 16 here. His previous best performances at a major were two third round appearances - at 2005 Wimbledon, where he lost to Thomas Johansson 62 63 61, and at this year’s Roland Garros where he lost to Tommy Robredo 63 64 60.

· Tipsarevic is the third different Serbian to reach the last 16 here, after Slobodan Zivojinovic, who reached this stage in 1986-89, and Novak Djokovic, who reached this stage last year. (Djokovic could still reach this stage again if he defeats Nicolas Kiefer in their third round clash.)

· Tipsarevic is bidding to become the second Serb to advance to the Wimbledon quarterfinals in the Open Era after Slobodan Zivojinovic in 1986-87.

· Tipsarevic is also bidding to win his first match against a Spaniard in six meetings. As well as losing to Ferrero at the 2006 Australian Open (see head-to-head), Tipsarevic has also lost to Fernando Vicente, (2005 Roland Garros), Tommy Robredo (2005 Umag and 2007 Roland Garros) and David Ferrer (2007 AMS Indian Wells).

· Last year at Wimbledon, Tipsarevic lost in the first round, falling to Andy Roddick 67 64 76 62.

· Tipsarevic has now won three consecutive matches for the first time in his tour-level career. His best performances throughout his professional career, outside of the Grand Slams, is winning two matches to reach the quarterfinals at 2006 Nottingham, 2006 Moscow, 2007 AMS Indian Wells and this year’s ‘s-Hertogenbosch.

· After a poor start to the year – he lost in the first round of his first six tournaments – Tipsarevic reached at least the second round of his subsequent seven tournaments including this one. He also won the Zagreb challenger on clay in May and climbed to a career-high ranking of No. 62 on 18 June. He plays here ranked No. 64.

· Tipsarevic warmed up for Wimbledon at Queen’s and ’s-Hertogenbosch. After losing to Fernando Gonzalez in the second round at Queen’s, he went on to reach the second grass court quarterfinal of his career at ’s-Hertogenbosch, losing to eventual champion Ivan Ljubicic 63 67 63.

· Tipsarevic played in the Wimbledon boys’ singles event in 2000 and 2001. His best performance came in 2001. As top seed, he advanced to the third round before losing to Todd Reid 36 62 64.

Featured matches

Head-to-head: Federer leads 8-2

Open Era grass court title leaders

No. of titles

Rank

Head-to-head: Mathieu leads 1-0

Head-to-head: first meeting

Head-to-head: Ferrero leads 1-0