Roger Federer vs Novak Djokovic: live

12.25 Hoping that the weather will hold. Trying to find some rain radar pics.

12.21 What of the weather forecast? We're expecting clouds, 68 degrees. Chance of showers.

12.20 And here's Oliver Brown on Federer.

The man is a metronome, albeit one of supremely elegant Swiss craftsmanship.

It is no wonder that Rolex continues to pay him £1 million a year, when every one of his matches on the lawns this summer has run like exquisite clockwork.

12.00 You'll be wanting the expert view of the players' chances in this match and where the key battles might be fought. Here is Greg Rusedski with just such a helpful item.

From Roger Federer's perspective, if he wins his 18th major here, it will make Rafael Nadal's chances of catching him much more remote. The old master will have the crowd at his back, and Novak Djokovic will be very much the villain, just as he was in the final against Andy Murray last year.

For Djokovic, though, the pressure is perhaps even greater. He has lost five out of the past six grand slam finals he has played. So he will have a massive psychological hurdle to jump over before he has even started.

Well worth a read and especially good on the mental battles, I thought.

11.40 Very shortly, as it turns out. Hello everyone and welcome to our live blog of the Wimbledon men's final. Any major match involving two of the big four is always worth a watch, and given that a Wimbledon title is at stake, it's surely about as good as it gets. So many fascinating aspects to consider: can the 32-year-old Roger Federer live with the freakihly durable Novak Djokovic if the match goes long? How will the game's finest returner deal with the Fed serve, perhaps the best serve the game has seen bar Pete Sampras. How will the influence of coaches Stefan Edberg (Roger) and Boris Becker (Novak) come into play?

We'll discuss those questions and many more - including the debate over which of these is the greater - over the next couple of hours.

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Alan will be here shortly for build-up and the best game-by-game report of today's mouthwatering Wimbledon men's singles final.

In the meantime, here is an extract from our tennis correspondent Simon Briggs' preview:

It is one of the great Wimbledon rivalries: a silky, enigmatic volleyer on one side, and an intense, glowering Mitteleuropean on the other. And that is only the coaches.

Roger Federer has played Novak Djokovic 35 times, but this will be the first time that both parties have been supported by their respective mentors, Stefan Edberg and Boris Becker. It feels like a flashback to the 1980s, when rallies lasted three shots and the barest part of the court was the 'gathering point' on the T of the service box.

Clearly the advent of the 'supercoach' phenomenon - which, lest we forget, was kick-started by Andy Murray's triumphant partnership with Ivan Lendl - is a boon for TV directors. But it is also changing the way modern tennis is played. Some of the magic of netplay is returning to a sport that had become overly wedded to the baseline.

Both Edberg and Becker have encouraged their charges to come forward wherever possible. As two of the greatest volleyers in history, they know there is an element of the chess gambit to a net-rush. Even if you lose the point, you are still messing with your opponent's mind, and the benefits are often reaped later.

Read the rest of the piece...

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