Olympics: Federer 'disappointed' By Protests

Roger Federer, who will carry the flag for Switzerland in tomorrow's opening ceremony, has expressed his "disappointment" in the torch protests earlier this year in London and Paris - and claimed that winning an Olympic gold would be as important as winning Wimbledon.

Federer, who is still the world No1 until the new rankings are published on August 18, said the protests over Tibet and China's human rights abuses had not affected his thinking over whether to compete in Beijing.

"I know the issues but there was never a question about taking part in an Olympic Games," he said. "I was disappointed what happened to the torch when it came to Europe and particularly Paris and London. It's not nice to see those things. It's supposed to be a celebration, right?

"I hope the Olympics will improve getting to know the Chinese people and the other way round so hopefully it will be good for everybody."

Some ATP players, including Lleyton Hewitt, have admitted that an Olympic gold matters less to them than winning a grand slam but Federer was quick to disagree. "In my position, as someone who has won a lot of grand slams, it's right up there," he said. "Winning would mean as much to me as an Wimbledon victory."

Federer's ambitions have been helped by an easier draw - his main rivals, Rafa Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray are all in the other half - although he admits that he is wary of his first-round opponent Dmitry Tursunov. "He's a dangerous player who hits a very hard ball and serves very well, so I will have to be careful," he said.

Federer also insisted that while he was disappointed to be losing the No1 spot to Nadal their rivalry was "great for tennis and sport in general". "We've already played 16 times so far in our careers - he's only 22 and I'm only 26 and I've got a feeling we're going to play another 20 times," he said. "It's great to have such an intense rivalry because I've not had that many rivals over the last few years, but with Rafa it is something special."

Despite not winning a grand slam so far this season, Federer was quick to dismiss suggestions that he had a poor season. "It's been a solid year," he said. "I tried really hard to come back from the sickness at the start of the year and losing at Wimbledon obviously hurt, but I reached the semi-finals at the Australian Open and the final of the French as well.

"To say I've had a bad season just because I didn't win that epic at Wimbledon and I've lost a couple of matches I should have won recently is a bit harsh."

· Andrew Murray will play Yen-Hsun Lu, the world ranked 72 player, in the first round of the men's draw. Meanwhile Murray and his brother Jamie have been drawn against Canada's Daniel Nestor and Frederic Niemeyer in the men's doubles.