A lot in store for tennis buffs

GRAND Slam tennis in an Olympic year holds special charm and appeal. The exhausting ATP and WTA circuit will not only get more demanding, but also gain an extra dimension.

An Olympic gold medal after all cannot be won very year like any of the four Grand Slam titles - the Australian Open, French Open, the Wimbledon and the US Open.

Remember 1988, the year a new term in tennis was coined - Golden Slam - after Steffi Graf enjoyed an unprecedented run completing the Grand Slam and adding the Seoul Olympic gold medal. It was a golden year, both for tennis and the Olympic Games.

Nobody since then has completed the Grand Slam in the same year, let alone come anywhere close to a Golden Slam. Andre Agassi did complete the Grand Slam collection, but he won the famous four titles in different years while his Olympic gold medal came at the 1996 Atlanta Games.

I suspect this year will produce something remarkably special. Let's keep this between you and me: I feel Roger Federer and Justin Henin have a very good chance of making it a double Golden Slam.

Both Federer and Henin are at the peak of their careers, mentally and physically. Both had a very successful 2007 winning three and two Grand Slams respectively. Both are at the top of the rankings and way ahead of their nearest rivals in terms of points. They only have to maintain the momentum of 2007 to further widen the gap at the top.

Federer with 7,180 points at the top of the ATP rankings enjoys a 1,400-point advantage over Rafael Nadal (5,780 points). Equally impressive are Henin's figures: with 6,155 points at the top of the WTA rankings, the Belgian enjoys a 2,430-point advantage over her nearest rival Svetlana Kuznetsova (3,725 points).

But the road to the pinnacle is not short of pitfalls. The Olympic Games is as good as a fifth Grand Slam and enters the calendar at its most gruelling stage - after the first three majors of the year and just before the US Open.

Tennis professionals indeed have their work cut out for them. The Australian Open starts next Monday (January 14 to 27), the French Open will be held from May 27 to June 10, the Wimbledon from June 23 to July 6 and the US Open from August 28 to September 10.

The Olympic Games is squeezed into a tight schedule: from August 10 to 17 which means it starts a little more than a month after the Wimbledon and concludes just 11 days before the start of the US Open. Add other major stops on the ATP and WTA circuit and the different surfaces some of the tournaments will be played on to get a taste of the demanding schedule ahead.

"It's going to be a tough trip, coming from the French Open to Wimbledon, over to North America and back but I'm ready for it," said Federer after winning the Shanghai Masters Cup in November.

The crucial point, therefore, is about peaking at the right moments with so much happening in a single time frame with very little breaks between them.

Graf achieved the Golden Slam with considerable ease winning three of the five major finals in straight sets. It was much like Carl Lewis winning four gold medals at the Los Angeles Olympic Games four years earlier. Both started as overwhelming favourites and ended as undisputed champions in their respective sports.

My take is that Graf was in the right place at the right time. She was 19 in 1988, young and enthusiastic enough for such an exhausting schedule and equally experienced and enormously gifted to alter her game plan to suit the constantly changing and diverse demands of playing on different circuits. Tennis too was reintroduced as a medal sport the same year - after 40-odd years.

Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert by then were in the twilight of their careers while Monica Seles and Martina Hingis were the new kids on the block. Meanwhile, Graf was too good for main rival Gabriela Sabatini whom she beat at the US Open (6-3, 3-6, 6-1) and the Seoul Olympics (6-3, 6-3).

Graf also beat Chris Evert for the Australian Open title (6-1, 7-6), Natalia Zvereva for the French Open (6-0, 6-0 in 32 minutes), and Martina Navratilova for the Wimbledon crown (5-7, 6-2, 6-1 after trailing 5-7, 0-2 at one stage). It was a colossally successful and career-defining year for Graf.

Federer and Henin at 26 and 25 respectively are much older than what Graf was in 1988. But two distinct pluses for both are their high fitness levels and mental strengths compared to their closest rivals.

Injury doubts surround World No. 2 Nadal, who beat Federer at the French Open. Ditto in case of Richard Gasquet while Lleyton Hewitt and Andy Roddick are clearly downhill. Another danger man Novak Djokovic is too mercurial to maintain consistent form while dark horse Andy Murray is in transitional mode and in between coaches.

Henin is in a similarly familiar situation. The Williams sisters, Venus and Serena, can be a major threat ... if they stay injury-free and fully-focussed that is. Maria Sharapova and Ameile Mauresmo, on the other hand, have to be in peak form to challenge the Henin forehand. Serb stars Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic will also be in the frame, but I doubt if they can match up to Henin in a major final.

Henin's coach and long-time mentor Carlos Rodriguez put the challenges of 2008 in perspective when he said: "The ideal answer doesn't exist. If there was a solution, it would have been common knowledge and given to us."

The year 2008 has a lot in store indeed.