Roger Federer continued his own dynasty on the tennis court, winning the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in the same year for the third time in four years. He was beaten in the semis in Australia in 2005. For the second straight year, Federer lost to Rafael Nadal in the final of the French Open, the only Grand Slam Federer's never won. He beat Nadal, his chief rival, in the Wimbledon final.
The Williams sisters made a comeback on the women's side, starting with Serena winning the Australian Open in January from the 81st seed. She was the third-lowest seed ever to win a Grand Slam tournament. It's her third Australian victory and eighth career Grand Slam tournament win.
In the other Grand Slam events, Justine Henin won the French and U.S. Opens and Serena's sister Venus Williams won Wimbledon from the 23rd seed. Saying she'd been inspired by Serena's performance in Australia, Venus Williams became the lowest seed ever to win Wimbledon -- breaking her own two-year-old record. She'd been seeded 14th in 2005. The win was Venus' fourth Wimbledon and sixth Grand Slam title.
In golf Tiger Woods' win at the PGA Championship allowed him to avoid a year with no wins in major tournaments, which would have been his first since 2004 and only his third since 1998. Woods now owns 13 major titles, five shy of the career record held by Jack Nicklaus. At the same age, 31, Nicklaus had won nine majors. The other majors winners were Zach Johnson at the Masters, Angel Cabrera at the U.S. Open, and Padraig Harrington at the British Open.
Morgan Pressell, 18, became the youngest woman to win a major when she took the Kraft Nabisco Championship in April. The other three majors were also taken by first-time winners: Suzann Pettersen at the LPGA Championship, Cristie Kerr at the U.S. Women's Open, and Lorena Ochoa at the British Open. Ochoa was easily the top player on the tour, topping the rankings and the money list by a wide margin.
Annika Sorenstam, the young century's most dominant woman golfer, had an off year. She was bothered by neck problems, missed significant time, and did not win an LPGA event for the first time since her rookie year in 1994.
Jimmie Johnson won his second straight NASCAR Nextel Cup. Kimi Räikkönen won the Formula 1 drivers championship. Dario Franchitti won the Indy 500.
A horse named Street Sense won the Kentucky Derby, Curlin and Rags to Riches taking the other legs of the Triple Crown. This wasn't one of those years when a horse transcended the sport. But the biggest news to come out of racing did involve such a horse, Barbaro, the 2006 Derby winner, who was euthanized in January, the eventual result of his breakdown in the '06 Preakness Stakes.
David Beckham, the 32-year-old metrosexual icon soccer player, left Real Madrid after it won the 2006-07 La Liga championship and joined the Los Angeles Galaxy of Major League Soccer, a minor league in international terms. The American soccer league hoped the aging English star would raise its profile both internationally and among American sports fans, but while Beckham was a merchandising smash, he didn't amount to much on the pitch, missing significant playing time with injuries.
In more significant soccer news -- except on these shores -- AC Milan beat Liverpool 2-1 in the UEFA Champions League Final.
The Tour de France continued its drug-fueled decline into farce. Not only was 2006 winner Floyd Landis officially stripped of his title following his positive drug test, but in the 2007 race, the leader, Michael Rasmussen, was kicked out of the race by his own teammates for lying about why he'd missed two dope tests prior to the season.
Like so much else that happened in 2007, it might have been funny if it weren't all so sad. As the year ended, baseball was squabbling over the facts and meaning of the Mitchell Report, football was still mourning the death of Sean Taylor, who was named posthumously to the Pro Bowl, and all and sundry were looking forward to a better 2008.
After all, it couldn't be much worse than '07 was.
About the writer
King Kaufman is a senior writer for Salon. You can e-mail him at king at salon dot com or visit his Facebook page.
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