Federer has the shots to become supreme lawn ranger

The Young Guns: Swiss with sweet volley and America's big-serving Roddick lead the charge of precocious pretenders in the men's singles

Goran's gone and Pete's looking gonzo.

So is this the Wimbledon where some unscarred and hardly-whiskered lad romps all the way to a tête-à-tête with the Duchess of Kent as Boris Becker did way back there in the 20th century?

Could it have been 17 years ago that 17-year-old Boris, unfamiliar with a razor but nifty enough with a racket, proceeded unseeded all the way to the first of his three championships? Nothing afterwards has equalled that phenomenon. Nor are there any wunderkinder quite so green hanging around the Big W dreaming of supplanting the absent-without-shoulder Goran Ivanisevic (a phenomenon on his own last year), or the ex-king, Pete Sampras, who may be looking for a shoulder to cry on as he wanders in exile – 24 months – from titles of any kind.

Nevertheless young dreamers abound, and chances are looking better than usual for an upstart to electrify the aged tennis parlour called Centre Court (80 this year) with astounding feats. Especially since another connoisseur of grassblades, Patrick Rafter, is also missing, and the ranks of those who understand how to play on God's own sod (and, moreover, are capable of doing so) are pretty thin.

Whether the 22-year-old American newcomer James Blake, who failed to qualify in 2001, can hold his head together long enough to make a genuine impact this time around, there's no doubt that his head will be one of the tournament's outstanding features. Or at least the distinctive hair upon it, which defies the laws of gravity and might be described as an Afro that has barely weathered a hurricane.

Slim James, at 6-1, serves heavy and can stir up a hurricane of shot-making, too. Nobody in the changing-room, where educational credentials are underpowering, holds Blake's two years at Harvard against him. That classroom time may have held him back as a pro, though, but he's where he wants to be: rising in the rankings toward the 20s, making his debut at Wimbledon, and a starter for a US Davis Cup team headed for the semi-finals against France in September.

Of course Andy (Ramrod) Roddick, 19, remains the great white hot hope of the US, although the heat was elsewhere during his first-round defeat at the French Open to Wayne Arthurs and two subsequent grass tests to Nicolas Kiefer and Jonas Bjorkman. Losing in the third round here a year ago to Ivanisevic (after beating the 11th-seeded Thomas Johansson) was a big disappointment – until Goran's future became apparent.

Andy's roaring serve, a huge asset, along with blistering groundstrokes, sets up more volleying opportunities than he seizes. But he'll get wise to that as he replaces Andre Agassi and Sampras as America's ringleader – maybe within the fortnight. Might he be the first teenage champion since Boris?

As far as Americans are concerned, the 20-year-old Swiss Roger Federer is Public Enemy No. 1. Last year he not only wiped out the US Davis Cup team, virtually single-handedly with two singles and a doubles wins, but, with zinging backhands, pierced Sampras's invincibility on Centre Court. That took five sets in the fourth round, and left Federer too drained to do much of anything else – fortunately for Tim Henman – except to win one more set.

When, three months ago at Key Biscayne, Florida, Federer clambered to the final of the Nasdaq-100, the American tournament second only to the US Open, some folks phoned their London bookmakers to take advantage of an early Wimbledon price on him. Even though he didn't defeat Agassi in that final, or play well recently on Parisian clay, which he dislikes, Roger ought to be a lawn ranger par excellence as he brings his volleying to bear.

Although you can hardly categorise the hustling Lleyton Hewitt and the headhunter Marat Safin (ever trying to find his own head) as relatively unblooded lads, each owning a US Open title, they do fit the precocious age profile.

Lleyton, 21, victor thrice at Queen's, has the grass stains as badges of competence on the footing that Aussies once dominated, and could well become the 11th wizard from Oz to rule Centre, taking a 20th Wimbledon title Down Under. A loner of that royal tribe as a non-serve-and-volleyer, he steals points with his legs and combativeness. His loyalists hope he avoids Nicolas Escude, who made French toast of him in the fourth round last year, and the Davis Cup final.

Safin, 22, oozing with firepower and legerdemain (when the brain is plugged in) was a quarter-finalist to Ivanisevic last time, falling in four sets. But two of those lost sets were tie-breaks that might have altered history.

Maybe, as 24-year-olds, Guillermo Canas, the plucky Argentinian, and Max Mirnyi, the bombarding Belarus, seem too hoary for this treatise. But Canas, who has lifted his homeland to the Davis Cup semi-finals, interred Yevgeny Kafelnikov in the Graveyard, Court 2, last year. And for the leviathan 6ft 5in Mirnyi serve-and-volley go together like gin-and-vermouth.

Is there more to the 21-year-old American Taylor Dent than a serve? He pressed Hewitt in five sets, and launched the 2001 tournament's prime thunderbolt, 144mph. Maybe he and Mirnyi should wear armour for their first-round joust. But for serving, the sage, Francisco "Pancho" Segura, likes 20-year-old American Mardy Fish, only on view this time in doubles.

"If you want to know what a serving action should look like, watch Mardy,'' says Pancho.

Plenty of action is what the 21-year-old Chilean Fernando Gonzalez will give you – too much of it, in fact, for Sampras at Key Biscayne. Brutally he treats tennis balls like mortal enemies, but can he do it in his coming out on this grass? Bringing a smoother approach, a relief to the eyes, is the stylish Russian Mikhail Youzhny, who turns 20 on Tuesday. He made the fourth round last year.

Nick Bollettieri says the 21-year-old Belgian Xavier Malisse had more talent than anybody who checked into his Florida boot camp. Possibly it's coming together. David Nalbandian, 20, another of the burgeoning Argentinian crowd to break in here, is worth a peek. Those who mourn the absence of the Big Itch, Ivanisevic, may find something to like in a countryman also with an itch at the end of his name, too, 23-year-old Ivan Ljubicic. Ivan, 6ft 4in, is just as big and serves almost bigger.

But what's in a name? Well, there's 20-year-old Jarkko Nieminen, the up-and-coming Finn. It's been a fast finish for the few Finns who've appeared here. Nevertheless, you have to like a guy with KO in his name.