They were sending him letters with good wishes or - believe it or not - tennis tips. They were offering advice about how to deal with a perceived drop in performance and ideas on how to beat Rafael Nadal.

"If you achieved a lot, like I did, for so many years, and then you don't win some tournaments, people say, 'Oh, you're already on the decline' very quickly," Federer said yesterday. "I hope it just opens some eyes, these last few months."

Yes, indeed. Look at Federer now.

When he steps onto Centre Court today to face No. 6-seeded Andy Roddick in the Wimbledon final, Federer will be trying to collect his 15th Grand Slam singles championship and break a tie with Pete Sampras for the most in history.

Also at stake for Federer:

A sixth Wimbledon title.

A chance to become only the third man in 40 years to win the French Open and Wimbledon in the same season.

A return to No. 1 in the rankings, a spot he ceded to Nadal 11/2 months after losing to the Spaniard in last year's epic final at the All England Club.

Federer is playing in his seventh consecutive Wimbledon final and 20th Grand Slam final overall, both records. It will also be his 16th final in the last 17 major championships.

The only one he missed in that span was in the 2008 Australian Open; Federer lost to eventual champion Novak Djokovic in the semifinals.

Federer then lost to Nadal in the French Open and Wimbledon finals and fell to No. 2 in the rankings after a record 237 weeks at the top. But Federer won a fifth consecutive U.S. Open in September and, after a five-set loss to Nadal in the Australian Open final in January, completed a career Grand Slam by winning his first French Open title last month.

That allowed him to tie Sampras with 14 major championships.

"Records are part of this great match right now," Federer said, "so it's obviously even more of an incentive to try really hard."

Roddick won the 2003 U.S. Open, but he is one of the many unfortunate souls who chose to play tennis for a living and happened to have been born about the same time as Federer: Roddick will turn 27 in August, a few weeks after Federer turns 28.

Roddick is 2-18 against Federer over their careers. That includes 0-7 in Grand Slam tournaments, 0-3 at Wimbledon, with losses to Federer in the 2003 semifinals and 2004 and 2005 finals at the All England Club. Roddick also lost to Federer in the 2006 U.S. Open title match.

"He never gives up," Federer said. "It hasn't been easy for him the last few years. Americans have a lot of expectations. They were spoiled with Sampras and [Andre] Agassi and all those before that. For them, it's not good enough to have someone in the top 10; they want somebody who is No. 1. It's great to see him back in a final."