Federer en-route to a Calendar Year Golden Slam

It’s a brave enough prediction to say Roger Federer will clinch the Calendar Grand Slam in 2008. That’s when a player wins all 4 majors in one year. Only two men have achieved this: Don Budge (1938) and Rod Laver (1962, 1969). If anyone is going to add his name to this very exclusive list, it’s Roger Federer.

But a Calendar Year Golden Slam? Sounds pretty impressive, and that’s because IT IS! That phrase was coined in 1988 when Steffi Graf won all 4 Singles Grand Slam Tournaments and the singles gold medal in the summer Olympic Games. As you can imagine, there aren’t many opportunities to attempt a Golden Slam. But hey, what d’ya know! 2008 just happens to be an Olympic year, and Roger Federer just happens to be in the form of his life.

Federer is practically unbeatable, although he did show some signs of weakness in 2007, when he lost a few matches he really shouldn’t have. But let’s face it. Federer is still the best in the world and very few can claim to have slain the scalp of the 26-year-old Swiss maestro.

For the last two years, only Rafael Nadal has stood in the way of Roger joining Budge and Laver in the record books. Federer is not at his best on clay, but he’s pretty darn good, having reached the final at Roland Garros the last two years. Find a way to conquer the Nadal roadblock on dirt, and Federer would have found a way of conquering another stat in the history books.

While Nadal is still the undisputed number 1.5(I still favour Roger for no 1, but Nadal maybe said 1.5 on clay) on clay, the young Spaniard has been wriggled with injuries over the last few months. He reached the final of the just-concluded Chennai Open where he was able to take just one game off Mikhail Youzhny in a dramatic collapse. Nadal blamed his performance on fatigue and the fact that his Russian opponent had played splendidly. But this is an early indication that Rafa is not at his best – and that is exactly what he will need to be to retain his French Open crown, especially with Federer breathing heavily down his neck, with one eye on the Calendar Slam.

Correction. Make that the Calendar Golden Slam.

Which brings me to the Olympic Games, and the gold medal which the Swiss Master would love to add to his already glittering collection of trophies.

R-Fed has already expressed his desire to win Gold in Beijing this year. It is a big priority in his list for 2008, as is winning the 4 Grand Slam titles this year. As is breaking Pete Sampras’ record of 14 majors.

It’s a long and steep road till the US Open in September. But you can be sure that Federer has spent a great amount of time in the off-season planning how best to fulfill his lofty ambition of becoming the first man ever to clinch a Calendar Year Golden Slam.