TENNIS/Wimbledon preview: Finally. After years of frustration, bewilderment, confusion and disappointment Britain have a tennis hope who is not Tim Henman.

The British number one should be more pleased about the rise of Scotland's Andrew Murray than anyone. The 18-year-old, who resides in Barcelona and plays a clay court game from the baseline, has finally given cause for some expectation at the higher level having made all of the right noises as a junior, where he was US Open Champion.

Although Murray was forced to withdraw from the Nottingham tournament last week after falling and twisting his left ankle at the Queens tournament just two points away from beating the 2002 Australian Open champion, Thomas Johansson, his aggressive style is quite a contrast to the gentle Tim the public have gotten used to seeing. Although he continued against Johansson, the teenager then succumbed to severe cramp and lost a match that would have put him into the quarter-finals.

Murray, who only recently broke into the top 400, has played only two tournaments on the ATP tour but has a very firm view of what he wants and how to get it. In his first match on grass at the Queens event, Murray defeated American Taylor Dent 6-3, 6-3. Dent was the ninth seed and more than 300 places above him on the ranking ladder.

"I felt comfortable from the first ball," said Murray afterwards. "I don't understand why people get nervous playing in front of their home crowds as I play tennis to play in front of crowds like this. And if you don't enjoy playing in front of crowds like that you probably shouldn't be playing tennis."

From Dunblane Murray's life could have been so different. When Thomas Hamilton turned up at his primary school in 1996 armed with four guns and 700 cartridges Murray was nine. In the massacre 16 children and a teacher were killed as the toddler and his friends sang songs in the headmaster's office. It is a subject he understandably wishes to avoid.

The teenager has been given a wild card into what will be his first Grand Slam event. A racquet smasher too it will be the younger faces that people will look at in week one. All will be trying to make an impression. Spain's 19-year-old hope, Rafael Nadal, also arrives with his heavy artillery and the French Open title while the best player in France, Richard Gasquet, could also make an impression.

Gasquet, a stylish and talented player, is determined to adapt his clay court game to the grass. The 19-year-old was beaten by Nadal in Paris in one of the most eagerly anticipated matches of the tournament. While Nadal is already in the top 10, Gasquet is ranked 25th in the world. But his commitment to climb higher is easily seen.

"It's not that great that the top player in France is only 25th in the world," he noted last week in Nottingham.

At the top end of the draw Nadal should be able to mix it with all of the best players.

But not since Pete Sampras at his height has a player been so highly regarded by his peers as Roger Federer. There is no one who believes that Federer will not win Wimbledon if he plays at even 80 per cent of his ability. In last year's final when he beat American Andy Roddick to win for the second successive year, Roddick, who won the first set of last year's final before losing in four, threw everything he had at the Swiss champion and barely made a dent.

But the American has said that his game has improved over the last 12 months and has taken some encouragement from the number one's defeats in both the Australian Open and French Open semi-finals.

"Roger has shown that he is human. Barely," Roddick wryly observed last week. Roddick maybe slightly concerned about his projected opponent in the second round, Ivo Karlovic, who at 6ft 10in is the tallest player on the tour. Roddick needed two tiebreaks to beat the Croatian in a dour match on his way to a third successive Queens title.

Australian Lleyton Hewitt may not be as physically fit as he normally appears. A fall at home, which damaged ribs kept the former Wimbledon and US Open champion out of the game for some months. He did not appear at the French Open but is now fully recovered and in good enough form for the Wimbledon committee to seed him at three. Federer will open his Wimbledon defence today against Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu.