One of the Wimbledon Championships’ favourite sons, Roger Federer, will return to the lush grass courts at SW19 in search for his eighth title at the event, as well as his 18th Grand Slam title overall. His first match-up will be against Damir Dzumhur, whom faced once previously last month at the French Open. Federer leads the head-to-head series 1-0.

A couple of weeks ago, Federer lifted his latest title on the grass courts in Halle following a straight sets win against Andreas Seppi. He beat the Italian 7-6,6-4 in an encounter that lasted an hour and 48 minutes. It was the eighth time that he was announced champion at the Gerry Weber Open, which puts him alongside Rafael Nadal and Guillermo Vilas. It was his 86th title on the tour overall and offered him the necessary momentum ahead of the Wimbledon Championships.

“2013 was difficult, 2014 was better and now 2015 after this week is even better and I hope I can keep it up. I think one big secret on grass is when to hit which shot and playing the score the right way. You might be playing perfect but then in one moment you take a bad decision and grass makes you pay for it all. So, this week has been great if I look at the whole thing. I don’t think I got broken anymore the last four matches I played. The first match was extremely close but I won all the tie-breaks this week, which gives obviously big confidence knowing that in the crucial moments my game was right there.”

In a surprising decision, Damir Dzumhur lost his third round match-up to Federer at the French Open, and instead of quickly making the transition to clay, he decided to play a clay court Challengers event in Moscow, which he lost in the quarter-final stage. He now heads into his second match with the legend with no match time on grass under his belt.

This marks the first time that these two competitors will cross paths on the professional circuit and should be a match that Federer wins in straight sets. Given that he has barely ever watched Dzumhur play tennis, this could be competitive affair until Federer finds his rhythm and analyzes his opponent’s game.