Greg Rusedski begins his Wimbledon challenge today with his glory bid seeming to hinge on 2005 being the year of sporting upsets.

Rusedski has rarely sparkle this year and, although he has been dealt some difficult draws, he has not gone beyond the third round of any tournament.

Until Queen's Club earlier this month he had stumbled either in the first or second round of every tournament he entered so there is little good reason to consider Rusedski even a dangerous outsider at the All England Club.

But he is clinging to the belief that he can drag his ageing self into the second week. For the 31-year-old this may represent a final chance to do so.

When he was cleared of drug offences last year, Rusedski spoke of playing in one or perhaps two more Wimbledons.

He crashed to Germany's Rainer Schuttler in the second round last year, when barely 75 per cent fit, after spending much of the spring focusing on his legal case.

This would be the second Wimbledon since that declaration and, as well as being Rusedski's tenth as a British player - having received his citizenship in May 1995 - it may also be his last.

To that end, he is desperate to impress and defy commonsense predictions.

He said: "It's been the year of the underdog --Liverpool coming back in the Champions' League final, Mary Pierce reaching the French Open final.

"If you're in the right position, with a British crowd, anything can happen."

When Rusedski first entered Wimbledon as a Briton, his mother having been born in Dewsbury, his rasping Canadian accent was glossed over because the bandana-wearing 21-year-old was blasting opponents off court and serving 140mph aces.

The youthful Tim Henman lurked somewhere outside the top 200, having barely made an impact on the world stage, and after victories over three Frenchmen - most notable of whom was Guy Forget - Rusedski bowed out in the fourth round to Pete Sampras.

A British sporting hero had been born inside ten days but Rusedski's promise at Wimbledon has not been fulfilled. He reached the quarter-finals in 1997, two months before finishing runner-up at the US Open, but has gone no further nor reached the lasteight stage since.