Twelve months ago, tennis journeymen Dominik Hrbaty and Tomas Berdych could only dream of having their names mentioned in the same breath as Roger Federer. But after the Swiss world number one had captured his second successive Wimbledon crown, Hrbaty and Berdych became the only two men to beat Federer from the time the doors closed on the All England Club and the curtain came down on 2004.
Hrbaty's moment of glory came in the first round at Cincinnati while Berdych knocked Federer out of the Olympics later in August.
Otherwise, it was a familiar tale of domination for the imperious 23-year-old Swiss.
After Wimbledon, he won titles in Gstaad and Toronto, suffered the Cincinnati and Athens blips before clinching his first US Open, Bangkok and the season-ending Masters Cup in Houston.
After Wimbledon, Federer played 31 times and lost just twice; since the turn of the year, he has played 54 matches and has only left as a loser on three occasions.
Ironically, that confidence, smoothly explained as always in his daily press conferences in English, French and Swiss-German, was dented, if not shattered, by 19-year-old Rafael Nadal in the French Open semi-finals. The Spaniard's win set him up for a memorable Grand Slam triumph.
Before Nadal's victory, only Marat Safin, in the Australian Open semi-final and French teenager Richard Gasquet, in the last eight at Monte Carlo, had managed to beat Federer in 2005. Even in those clashes, Federer had match points.
Not surprisignly, those minor setbacks have not knocked him out of his stride. He already has seven titles to his name in 2005 - on hard courts in Doha, Dubai, Indian Wells and Miami, indoors in Rotterdam, on clay in Hamburg and a third successive win on Halle grass.
A third Wimbledon in just over two weeks' time will put him onto 30 career wins, and no-one is betting against him. Sampras, whose seven Wimbledon titles must surely be under threat from Federer, is also a convert.
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