2017 Wimbledon draw, Roger Federer
Britain Tennis - Wimbledon - All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club, Wimbledon, England - 8/7/16 Switzerland's Roger Federer lies on court after falling during his match against Canada's Milos Raonic Reuters / Adam Davy

World No. 5 Roger Federer will begin his quest for a record eighth Wimbledon title Tuesday in his first-round match against Ukranian Alexandr Dolgopolov. The Swiss Master hasn't won at the All-England Tennis Club since 2012. Despite the long drought, Federer enters the 2017 Wimbledon as the odds-on favourite.

Federer, at 35, is playing some of the best tennis of his storied career. After entering 2017 as World No. 17, Federer captured Grand Slam No. 18 at the Australian Open before breezing to the podium at back-to-back ATP Masters 1000 events in Indiana Wells and Miami. He decided to skip the entirety of the clay-court season, including Roland Garros, before prevailing at Galle in the lead-up to Wimbledon.

In recent years, Federer has prioritised grass-court and hard-court tournaments. The decision to skip the French Open has admittedly given him the opportunity to recharge his batteries for the third Grand Slam of the year. To reach the Promised Land at the hallowed turf of SW19, Federer would have to contend with an extremely challenging half that features the likes of Novak Djokovic, Alexander Zverev, Milos Raonic, Dominic Thiem and Grigor Dimitrov.

Following Dolgopolov, Federer would most likely face German veteran Mischa Zverev in the Round of 32 before a potential showdown against No. 13 seed Dimitrov in the fourth-round. Thereafter, Federer would likely face either Zverev or Raonic in the Round of 8. Raonic had upset Federer during last year's semi-final before losing to eventual champion Andy Murray in the championship round.

Clearly, it won't be an easy path for Federer. This will be his 19th apperance at the All-England Tennis Club, just two shy of American Jimmy Connors' record in the Open Era. A victory at the 2017 Wimbledon would give Federer 85 career match victories at SW19, equalling the record held by Connors. On the eve of his first-round match, Federet told CNN Sport in an interview that he nearly walked away from the sport after suffering a series of heartbreaking losses between 2013 and 2016.

"When you're young, it's very important to have that drive -- even when you're defeated -- to go back and hit up against a wall or a cupboard like I did," Federer said before explaining the pressure of maintaining a high work ethic in the twilight of his career. "You do maybe take the hammer and the nail and put the racket up against a wall and say I'm going to walk away from it all ... but five minutes later you're going to pick it up again and you're going to play again. Hard work is key. Probably more than 50% of success at that point."

For the first time since 2014, the Big 4 of tennis have been seeded No. 1 through No. 4 with Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Federer and Rafael Nadal at the top of the tree. If they can get through the next two weeks without an upset, Murray would face Nadal in the first semi-final while Federer would lock horns with Djokovic in the other Round of 4 match.

On Tuesday, Roger Federer's first-round match is the third scheduled match on Centre Court. The second day of 2017 Wimbledon gets underway at 1 p.m. British Standard Time (BST) and 10 p.m. Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST). Roger Federer vs Alexandr Dolgopolov live streaming, 2017 Wimbledon live streaming and tennis live streaming info follows.

Roger Federer vs Alexandr Dolgopolov live stream: Watch Wimbledon online
Start time: 3:45 p.m. (Local Time, BST), 12:45 a.m. on Wednesday (AEST), 10:45 a.m. (ET)
On TV: Fox Sports (Australia), ESPN (USA)
Live Stream: Tennis TV (Global), Foxtel Play / Foxtel Go (Australia), WatchESPN (USA)

RELATED STORIES