Tennis:Love him or find him boring, the world number one is bringing the game to new heights, writes Johnny Watterson

There are two trains of thought on Roger Federer. One of them says that, not unlike the Pete Sampras era, the sport is lacking colour and excitement under the reign of the Swiss. The other says Federer's talent is such we are privileged to watch him - one of the greatest players ever, one who transcends the normal rules that govern the winning of matches.

If this year in tennis was anything it was a reinforcement of the idea that we are watching a phenomenon. Barring injury and complacency, Federer is destined to surpass Sampras, Rod Laver, Andre Agassi, Don Budge and Roy Emerson.

This year was a prosperous one for the world number one. He won three of the four Grand Slams - AustraliaOpen, Wimbledon and US Open - and reached the final of the other only to be thwarted in Paris by the Spanish prodigy Raphael Nadal.

While Federer has relatively struggled on clay, this year he has illustrated that the Grand Slam (holding all four Majors at the same time) is within his scope.

In the immediate aftermath of every final there is always a sense of lost opportunity on one side - the chances ungrasped, the break points unconverted. The final act this year at Roland Garros was particularly agonising for Federer, when he let slip the opportunity to hold all four titles simultaneously. And that failure to gatecrash a club that has only two members, Budge and Laver, actually overshadowed Nadal's 6-1, 1-6, 6-4, 7-6, victory.

Of the five who have won all the Grand Slam titles - Agassi, Budge, Emerson, Laver and Fred Perry - only Budge and Laver held all at the same time. A French win then would have made Federer - as he headed toward Wimbledon, where he had won for the previous three years - only the sixth man to have won the four.

The failure in France was especially galling, because the magisterial Federer searched long and hard for a game that he knew was there, but simply couldn't find.

In Roland Garros, statistics damned him, though they are not usually the points of interest that fully describe his play. Normally, you would look for a game that has been put together without the seams showing, the one that had brought him to seven Grand Slam finals and seven titles.

Since that sweltering, 32-degree afternoon, he went on again to win the Wimbledon title, just a month later, before annexing the US Open title in September.

Wimbledon is now his home, but in another extraordinary addition to his already regal resume, the third straight US Open title was a thrilling 6-2, 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 victory over the American Andy Roddick. Federer rose to stratospheric levels late in the third and fourth sets with a succession of incredible forehand winners and stunning returns.

In taking what was his ninth Grand Slam title in New York, the 25-year-old became the first man in the history of the Open era to win the Wimbledon and US double in three consecutive years.

Fittingly, he had sporting "royalty" watching him from the Friends' Box. The sportsman to whom he is most often compared, golfer Tiger Woods, showed up. Woods now has 12 major titles to Federer's nine.

This year, Federer played 92 games and lost only five. He won 12 tournaments, including the three Slams, and pocketed €8,343,885.

He has been the world number one since February 2004, and in 2006 he accumulated 8,370 ranking points, almost twice as many as his nearest rival, Nadal, who amassed 4,470 points.

It was also a breakthrough year for Amelie Mauresmo, who won the Australian Open title in January before taking her first Wimbledon title against Justine Henin-Hardenne.

It was vitally important for the French stylist to bridge the seven-year gap since she last won a Slam. Fears had been that she would be left with just one Grand Slam title - the 1999 Australian - which would have been scant reward for her abundant talents.

As for the game in Ireland, it was a disappointing year that included relegation in the Federation Cup and Davis Cup, though it must be said injuries to and unavailability of players were factors.

The good news is that the Navan-based teenager Mariana Levova, when she gets an Irish passport, will surely provide much to cheer about.

Irish tennis lives in hope.

2006 Winners

Women

Australian Open ... Amelie Mauresmo(Fra)

French Open ... Justine Henin-Hardenne(Bel)

Wimbledon ... Amelie Mauresmo(Fra)

US Open ... Maria Sharapova(Rus)

Men

Australian Open ... Roger Federer(Swi)

French Open ... Rafael Nadal(Spa)

Wimbledon ... Roger Federer(Swi)

US Open ... Roger Federer(Swi)