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Monday, December 25, 2006
Federer looking to extend dominance into 2007
By Sanjay Rajan, Reuters
CHENNAI, India - World number one Roger
Federer says hopes to extend his seemingly invincible reign
over men's tennis into the new season. The nine-times grand slam winner was virtually unstoppable
in 2006, reaching the final in all but one of the 17
tournaments he contested and winning three of the four majors. "I am basically living my dream. I hope I can keep it up,"
the 25-year-old Swiss told Reuters over the weekend. "Motivation is never a problem and won't be a problem for
the next few years." The Swiss ace will kick off 2007 at the AAMI Classic in
Kooyong in Australia on Jan. 8, before starting the defence of
his Australian Open title the following week. Federer on Saturday concluded a two-day field trip of the
tsunami-hit southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu in his role of
a UNICEF goodwill ambassador. "(Winning the) French Open will definitely be a dream come
true," he said of the only grand slam that has eluded him. "But on top of the list there is always Wimbledon and
staying number one in the world because these are the ones that
changed my life and made me the player and person I am today." COMPETITION The Swiss became the first player to pocket more than $8
million in prize money in one season and accumulated an
unprecedented 8,370 ranking points. Such is his dominance that even if he puts his feet up
until the end of February, he has hoarded enough points to
break Jimmy Connors's record of 160 consecutive weeks as world
number one. But Federer also stressed the importance of having
high-level competition that can push him to greater glories. "You need the competition, some get more lucky, some get
more unlucky. But we have great set of players at the moment
.... like (Rafael) Nadal, (Andy) Roddick, (Lleyton) Hewitt,
(Marat) Safin, (David) Nalbandian and new ones coming like
(Ivan) Ljubicic and (Nikolay) Davydenko. "(Andre) Agassi has just retired, we had a fantastic 2006
and an interesting 2007 lying ahead." Along with the French Open, Federer has set his eyes on two
other crowns in the coming years. "Davis Cup will be nice and Olympics in 2008 will be a big
goal for me as well. These are the ones I haven't won yet," he
said.
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