Tears for fears

It was the summer of 1999 and after narrowly missing out on the world titles of 1997 and 98 all seemed set for Michael Schumacher to finally achieve his goal of delivering Ferrari its first Driver's World Championship in two decades. However, fate intervened and the German broke his leg at the British Grand Prix. After a remarkable set of circumstances, including a host of errors from chief rivals McLaren, Schumacher's Ferrari team-mate Eddie Irvine was suddenly propelled into the position of favourite for that year's title as the formula one circus arrived at the final race. After huge amounts of effort and tens of millions of dollars directed towards Schumacher, suddenly the bridesmaid appeared the more likely to be the one to deliver, much to Schuey's embarrassment.

Now fast forward ten years and think tennis. Think Rafael Nadal lifting last week's Australian Open title followed by Roger Federer's tears. After years of hard work and toil, narrowly missing out on the grand slam by winning all four majors, Federer can now see someone else on the horizon set to eclipse him.

In recent years, talk of Federer achieving his aim would gather momentum as the season progressed, particularly as he frequently got off to the perfect start by safely securing the opening slam in Melbourne. Then as spring would turn into summer, the French Open would arrive and so would the dark clouds, if only temporarily, over the man from Basel's season. A routine path to the final would ensue but the combination of clay and Nadal would prove to be too much. Thus, a blight on Federer's season and another year would pass by, despite continued dominance at Wimbledon and the US Open. The season finishing with three out of the four slams in the trophy cabinet. Winning three grand slams in one year occurred to Federer on three occasions (2004, 06 and 07). Last year, however, he won just one- the US Open last September. Nevertheless, this year began with some predicting a return to form and a possible clean sweep.

Nadal's victory last Sunday put paid to that notion and, as a result, it is the Spaniard who now appears most likely to achieve that clean sweep. Having been successful at the previous four French Opens he will be odds on to claim a fifth at Roland Garros this year. Wimbledon follows on quite quickly from Paris and he is the reigning champion at SW19 so will see no reason why he cannot secure a second title. That would be three out of three and the final piece of the jigsaw would arrive in the autumn in New York. This will be the hardest of the slams to win. He has never even reached the final before but after some convincing displays on the hard courts of Melbourne he will feel more confident than ever at Flushing Meadow. There will be many variables to negotiate en route for the Spaniard but perhaps it was the realisation of a dream slipping away and into someone else's hands that was the cause of Federer's tears.

Irvine blew it back in 1999 through a combination of incompetence and an inability to deal with the pressure suddenly thrust upon him, two accusations that could never be thrown the way of Nadal.