Reviewed by Sally Easton
Federer has the most grass court titles in the Open Era - 11 in total: six from Wimbledon and five from Halle in Germany, which is held in the week before Wimbledon. He didn't play at Halle this year, which is regarded as a warm-up event to Wimbledon, having withdrawn with a sore groin after his losing Roland Garros final.
It is only the third time in his career that Federer has not played a warm-up event on grass before coming to London. But not to be daunted, the last time he didn't play a warm-up competition was in 2009, which turned into his sixth Wimbledon title.
In the Open Era, only six men have won Wimbledon without playing any grass court warm-up event: Stan Smith, 1972; Jan Kodes, 1973; Bjorn Borg, 1976 to 1980 (all of them); Boris Becker, 1989; Andre Agassi, 1992; and Roger Federer 2007 and 2009.
And of the 19 men who arrived at the tournament without playing any sort of grass court warm-up event before coming to SW19, only nine remain in the draw: Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, David Ferrer, Mardy Fish, Richard Gasquet, Fernando Gonzalez, Jurgen Melzer, Robin Soderling and Mikhail Youzhny.
But in terms of outright wins, the Swiss supremo is only the second most successful active player on grass, with a 98-14 career record. Australia's Lleyton Hewitt has the extraordinary career record on grass of 104 wins to 27 losses. His grass court title tally is four below that of Federer, with seven, which puts 30-year-old Hewitt at No.2 in the rankings of grass court title holders. His most recent grass court title was at Halle in 2010, when he defeated no other than Roger Federer in the final.
Third in wins on grass amongst active players is Andy Roddick with 78-19. Of the top three, only Federer can still improve his record in this tournament.
Staying on the grass, out of the seven possible ATP tennis tour grass court tournaments (Nottingham, UK; Eastbourne, UK, Halle, Germany; Queen's Club, UK; Wimbledon, UK; s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands; Newport, USA), Wimbledon has been the location of the first career grass court title for just two men since 1968 - Michael Stich in 1991, and Andre Agassi in 1992.