Roger Federer the favourite for Olympic gold |

With Rafael Nadal out of the Olympics, Wimbledon champion Roger Federer is the one to beat at the Olympics.

Olympics: Federer acknowledges he's favourite
Wimbledon champion and world No.1 Roger Federer has acknowledged he is the favourite for Olympic gold.

For all Federer's 17 Grand Slam titles, an Olympic singles medal has eluded him, although he won gold in the men's doubles in 2008.

Federer took back the top spot from Novak Djokovic last month after winning Wimbledon, where the Olympic tennis will be played.

Asked if he considers himself the top candidate for gold ahead of local hero Andy Murray and Djokovic, the top seed answered affirmatively. "I played great at Wimbledon, I was able to beat Novak, does that make me the favorite? Maybe. I'm the world No. 1, so if you put all these things on the table it could be the case," he said.

Federer said he was not completely concentrating on his own performance. "To be quite honest, my focus is a little bit on them now, but only for as long as I'm in the tournament. I hope to still be standing so I can face them," Federer said of Murray and Djokovic.

Arch-rival Rafael Nadal pulled out of the competition due to a lack of preparation caused by knee injury.

But Federer, drawn against Colombia's Alejandro Falla in round one, is wary of the early stages, where the shortened best-of-three match format narrows the margins considerably.

As the 30-year-old star noted, had he played best-of-three at Wimbledon a month ago, he would have been ousted in round three by Julien Benneteau.

"That is the danger of the early rounds," he said.

Olympics: Djokovic says Federer is favourite for gold
World No.1 Roger Federer is the favourite to win gold at the Olympics, his rival and world No.2 Novak Djokovic said.

"Roger Federer is a recent Wimbledon winner and stands the best chance to win gold because of his career of success," Djokovic said.

He said Britain's Andy Murray could also win at his home Olympics. "Then you have Andy Murray, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and myself," Djokovic said.

Reigning Olympic champion Rafael Nadal is injured and unable to take part.

Djokovic won Wimbledon last year and has reached the semifinals on three other occasions, most recently last month, losing to Federer in the semifinals.