London: Defending champion Novak Djokovic and six-time winner Roger Federer were once again set on a Grand Slam collision course when they were placed in the same half of the Wimbledon draw today.
World number one Djokovic, who swept past Federer in straight sets in the French Open semi-finals earlier this month, could meet the Swiss again in the last four.
The top-seeded Serb will start his campaign against Spain`s former world number one Juan Carlos Ferrero while Federer, who has lost in the quarter-finals in the last two years, takes on another Spaniard, Albert Ramos.
Second seed Rafael Nadal, the 2008 and 2010 champion, and fresh from a record seventh French Open title, meets Brazil`s Thomaz Bellucci.
Fourth-seeded Briton Andy Murray, who has lost in the semi-finals in the last two years to Nadal, is scheduled to meet the Spaniard again in the last four, but first he must get past wily Russian Nikolay Davydenko in his opener.
Lleyton Hewitt, the 2002 champion, begins against French star Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who knocked out Federer in five sets in the quarter-finals last year.
In the women`s draw, top seed Maria Sharapova, the 2004 champion and this year`s French Open winner, begins against Australia`s Russian-born Anastasia Rodionova.
Unseeded Kim Clijsters, a four-time Grand Slam title winner who will retire after the US Open, is in the same quarter of the draw as the Russian and begins against fellow former world number one Jelena Jankovic.
PTI
First Published: Friday, June 22, 2012, 17:18