Murray backs another swiss roll

Andy Murray believes Roger Federer will bounce back from his French Open humiliation to win Wimbledon for the sixth year in a row.

Federer was thrashed 6-1 6-3 6-0 by Rafael Nadal in Sunday's final at Roland Garros, and has just two weeks to get ready for the defence of his title at the All England Club.

The world number one has won just one, relatively low-key, tournament all year but Murray feels reports of his demise may have been greatly exaggerated.

"At the start of the year everyone was saying Federer is going down, he's not playing as well," Murray said after advancing to the third round of the Artois Championships when opponent Sebastien Grosjean retired injured after just two games.

"He's made the final of the French, semis of the Australian Open and has played well in the Masters Series on the clay. So I don't think he's losing it that much.

"I still think he's the best player in the world until he's gone down to number two in the rankings. He's still a long way ahead of Nadal and (Novak) Djokovic in terms of ranking points and what have you.

"I mean, if he continues to win Wimbledon, dominate the US Open like he has been, then, yeah, he's still going to be the best.

"But I think it's good for tennis. There's a few more guys that have a chance of winning against him, a better chance at winning slams now."

Murray also pointed to Nadal's run to the final of Wimbledon last year, when he came through a number of tough five-set matches, adding: "Last year he did win a couple of very close matches early on in the tournament and also the year before he struggled at the beginning of the tournament, too.

"He's made the final a couple years in a row, so he's definitely one of the favourites to win it. But I still feel like there's more chance of him maybe losing before the final than there is of Federer."

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