World No 1 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 said 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 January. 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."
The Swiss became the first player to pocket more than US$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 No 1.
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.
(China Daily December 26, 2006)
