TENNIS/Australian Open: Night time has always been considered the right time for tennis at the US Open, with the lights of the Manhattan skyline adding a magical backdrop to the courts at Flushing Meadows, a magic that is almost absent during the day in blue-collar Queens.

Yet it is the Australian Open, celebrating its centenary, that has taken the plunge and scheduled the first evening start to a grand slam men's final a fortnight tomorrow.

Rod Laver, the greatest men's player Australia has produced, will present the winner's trophy in the court named after him, with a high probability that Switzerland's Roger Federer, the reigning champion and a player now being talked of in the same breath as Laver, will receive it.

Such is Federer's current dominance that the rest of the world's leading pack of players may have subconsciously limited themselves to battling it out for the number two spot over the next 12 months. Federer, or so it seems, is simply out of their reach.

When Federer's domination was sealed at the end-of-season Tennis Masters Cup in Houston last November, which he won undefeated, it appeared that current world number three Lleyton Hewitt might become the most likely player to lead the chasing pack in the new year, and at least offer the Swiss some sort of sustained challenge.

True, the Australian lost the Houston final against Federer in straight sets, as he had the US Open final, but in the process the Australian had convinced himself that he could put the rest in their place on any surface other than clay. And since then, Hewitt has bulked himself up considerably in an attempt to match his speed around the court with a greater power of shot but still he no doubt was relieved yesterday when he was drawn in the opposite half to Federer, ensuring they cannot cross paths until the final.

Hewitt's record in the Australian Open, though, is poor. The 23-year-old has never progressed beyond the last 16 here and fell at this stage last year to Federer, who at the time regarded the victory as a key win, having played poorly against Hewitt in the past.

It will hardly be easier for Hewitt this time, although reaching the last eight would be a major breakthrough and might see the easing of the tension.

World number two Andy Roddick was humiliated by Hewitt in Houston, a defeat that may have been instrumental in the ditching of his coach Brad Gilbert. Of all the leading players the American was attempting, under Gilbert's tutelage, to make the most fundamental of changes in his game and was struggling to adapt.

Roddick had won his only grand slam title, the 2003 US Open, by exploiting his explosive power on the serve and forehand. Gilbert encouraged a more flexible backhand and the need to get into the net and it will be fascinating to see whether Roddick reverts to a more basic game.

Russia's fourth-ranked Marat Safin, beaten by Federer in last year's final here, is perhaps the one player who has both the talent and a big enough game to trouble the Swiss. The good news for Federer is that Safin's mental weaknesses make it unlikely that any challenge will be protracted.

Guillermo Coria and David Nalbandian, Tim Henman and Carlos Moya, will also form part of the competitive mix in pursuit of Federer in Melbourne. But each will be hoping that the world number one somehow slips up in the first week for, once in his stride, he has proved virtually unstoppable.

While the men's tennis world drools over the sublime skills of Federer, the women will gather in Melbourne with a coughing, spluttering Lindsay Davenport, who has not won a major since defeating Martina Hingis here five years ago, as the nominal leader of their inconsistent pack .

It is to be hoped that Davenport recovers from her bout of bronchitis but just who will threaten her number one status is open to question.

Last year four different women won the four grand slam titles, yet none ended the year in the world's top two. France's Amelie Mauresmo, the number two behind Davenport, had success at a lower level, winning five WTA titles but, like the Californian, she failed to reach a slam final.

Success at Tour level, it appeared, meant more than grand slam achievement. It was an anomaly - a transitional period that will almost certainly change this year with, probably, one of the Russians forcing her way to the top via success at the slams.

Anastasia Myskina won the French Open; Svetlana Kusnetsova triumphed in New York and Elena Dementieva was the beaten finalist at both Roland Garros and Flushing Meadows. One of these three, or Wimbledon winner Maria Sharapova, will force her way to the top, with Sharapova, 18 in April, the most likely to get there.

Sharapova is a woman in a hurry and one with a distinct awareness of her destiny. Her determination and will to win are implacable. She is still capable of tactical inflexibility, sometimes naivety, but she does not lose for want of self-belief. After Wimbledon Sharapova struggled to come to terms with the concomitant pressures, only to re-emerge triumphant at the Tour Championships in Los Angeles where, as at Wimbledon, she defeated Serena Williams in the final.

To get to the final here Sharapova may need to defeat Williams again, this time in the semi-finals. She should have enough to do that. Sharapova has a modern game of power and directness that will be difficult to counter once her experience on all surfaces increases. And unlike Myskina, Dementieva and Kuznetsova, she has no obvious weaknesses of shot.

The Williams sisters remain in denial that their days are numbered, Mauresmo is still a bundle of barely contained nerves in the final week of a slam event, and Belgium's Justine Henin-Hardenne, the reigning champion, and Kim Clijsters are injured.

The Australian is the one major the Russian women have yet to conquer but the odds on one of them succeeding this time look increasingly short.