A Step From Tennis Elite

They’ve stood together for more than three decades, so to speak, and an interloper might get to the door but ultimately be unable to join their most exclusive tennis club.

Don Budge and Rod Laver could be the most difficult twosome to crack in sports.

Budge and Laver are the only men to hold all four Grand Slam titles -- the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open -- at the same time. Budge, who died in 2000, did it in 1938, and Laver accomplished it in 1962 and 1969.

Could the long-standing duo become a trio after the French Open men’s final today?

Top-seeded Roger Federer of Switzerland stands one victory from joining the company of Budge and Laver. By winning the French Open, he could accomplish something that eluded the grasp of legends Pete Sampras and John McEnroe. Doing so would spark debate about his place in the game among the all-time greats.

“He’s already one of the greatest of all time, we’ll never know if he’s the greatest of all time,” former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash said of Federer. “As far as all the shots, he’s probably the most complete player because he has the extra shots.

“He doesn’t serve as well as Sampras or doesn’t volley as well as Sampras, but he knows how to play on clay. It’s not something easy to do. Players like myself and McEnroe, we struggled with it.”

All the 24-year-old Federer has to do to join Budge and Laver is defeat a seemingly nerveless kid who has not lost on a clay-court surface in the last 59 matches. That would be 20-year-old Rafael Nadal of Spain, the defending champion, who has not even been forced to a fifth set in his last 13 victories at Roland Garros.

Almost comically, the second-seeded Nadal and his camp still called Federer the favorite in today’s final, though he has defeated Federer in five of their six meetings, including three times on clay. Federer seems almost tired of answering the question about being the favorite, whether it’s in English, French or Swiss-German.

“Well, I don’t agree. I’ve said this four times before,” Federer said in a news conference Saturday. “I think this is the fifth.”

Cash and TV commentator Mary Carillo said they picked Federer to win the French Open title, going back to when he nearly defeated Nadal in a five-set epic last month in the Italian Open final at Rome, squandering two match points.

Federer would be the sixth man in history to win all four majors, a “career Slam.”

The other five are Budge, Laver, Roy Emerson, Fred Perry and Andre Agassi. The final leg of Agassi’s career Slam was the 1999 French Open.

A win here would put Federer halfway to a calendar Slam -- Budge and Laver are the only men to accomplish that feat -- and it would be his fourth consecutive Slam title. Serena Williams completed the “Serena Slam” at the Australian Open in 2003 and became the fifth woman to hold all four titles at once, joining the company of Maureen Connolly, Margaret Court, Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf.

Navratilova also put weight behind Federer’s performance at the Italian Open.

“I’ve been saying it since Rome that I thought Federer was going to win,” she said in an interview here Saturday. “I still think he can. On clay, probably two out of five matches he would win, but right now he’s not even winning two out of five in real time. He’s 0 and 3 for the year. That obviously helps Nadal a lot. But this is the final, and it’s the French Open. All bets are off ... the history.

“Let’s put it this way, if Roger has the chance to win, he’ll close it out if he gets that close. He’s not going to make the same mistake on his forehand that he did in Rome. He’s going to get up to the ball and smack it.”

The only women to achieve a calendar Slam were Connolly, Court and Graf. Navratilova once won six Slams in a row and has always had strong feelings on the topic of the non-calendar Slam vs. the calendar Slam.

“To me, winning four in a year is a Grand Slam, I don’t care if it’s in a calendar year or not,” she said. “It’s four in a row -- period. Over 12 months you’ve won all four Slams. It’s a phenomenal feat. They’re making it not as good as the Slam. I’m not saying this because I did it. I’ve always said this.”

Federer shed serious tears after he won the Australian Open in January when Laver presented him the trophy.

He has not spoken to the legend about winning the Grand Slam twice but has had conversations about it with one of Laver’s friends, Tony Roche, who is Federer’s coach.

Though Federer has lost to Nadal three times this year in finals, twice on clay, he does have a history of reversing trends in dramatic fashion. He lost seven of his first nine matches against Lleyton Hewitt, but now has defeated the Australian nine times in a row. David Nalbandian of Argentina beat Federer in their first five matches and has won just once in their last six meetings.

“I need a good match, very simple,” Federer said Saturday. “Same as when I used to play Hewitt. I know that the average match is not going to make it, and that’s going to give me the option then to either win or lose....

“Even though it’s hot now, I have no doubt it will not be decided physically but especially mentally. Those matches with Nadal toughened me up, actually, in Monaco and in Rome.

“So I’m very positive for tomorrow.”

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By the numbers

How No. 1 Roger Federer matches up against No. 2 Rafael Nadal before the French final:

* Nadal’s last loss on a clay court came on April 8, 2005, against Igor Andreev of Russia in the quarterfinals at Valencia, Spain. His 59-match win streak includes nine titles.

* Nadal has won four titles -- three on clay -- in 2006. Federer has won four this year, none on clay. Nadal is 3-0 against Federer in 2006 and has lost once to him in six meetings.

* Federer is trying to become the first player since Rod Laver in 1969 to win four consecutive Grand Slam events. Laver and Don Budge are the only men to do so.

* Neither Federer nor Nadal has lost a Grand Slam tournament final. Federer is 7-0, and Nadal is 1-0.

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Lisa Dillman