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| January 1, 2006 | Sunday | Ziqa’ad 29, 1426 |
Federer, Hingis eye 2006 with different goals
PARIS, Dec 31: While Roger Federer is dreaming of Grand Slam history in 2006, compatriot Martina Hingis is praying that her comeback doesn’t end up as just an embarrassing and ill-advised footnote once the year ends.
The mens’ world number one, who lost just four times in 85 matches in 2005, will defend his Wimbledon and US Open titles and hopes to reclaim his Australian Open crown as well as break his French Open jinx.
Hingis, who collected five Grand Slams before injury sidelined her for three years, simply hopes not to be out-gunned by the muscular brigade which has supplanted her.
Still just 24, Federer has already collected six Grand Slams and is widely expected to storm past Pete Sampras’s record of 14 by the time he calls it quits.
But the path to true greatness is filled with twists and turns and Federer’s all-consuming journey traditionally suffers serious engine failure when he turns up in Paris every spring for the French Open.
Like Sampras, Boris Becker and John McEnroe before him, Federer has yet to unravel the mysteries of the Roland Garros clay.
His run to the semifinal in 2005, where he lost to eventual champion Rafael Nadal, followed three previous appearances where he never got beyond the third round.
In the women’s game, scrutiny will be on Hingis, the 25-year-old who left the tour in 2002 because of a crippling ankle injury.—AFP
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