World number one Roger Federer [ Images ] beat seven-time Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher [ Images ] and golfer Tiger Woods [ Images ] to win his third straight Laureus World Sportsman of the Year award in a glittering evening in Barcelona [ Images ] on Monday.

The 25-year-old Swiss became the first sportsman to receive the award on three occasions since it was established in 2000.

Russia's [ Images ] record-breaking pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva [ Images ] won the award for World Sportswoman of the Year, while the team of the year award went to the Italian football side for their World Cup triumph.

American Serena Williams [ Images ] took the comeback of the year award, with the breakthrough award going to fellow tennis player Amelie Mauresmo [ Images ] after the Frenchwoman won her first two grand slam titles at the Australian Open [ Images ] and Wimbledon [ Images ].

Federer won the Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open [ Images ] in 2006 and reached the final of the French Open [ Images ]. He also won the year-ending Masters Cup in Shanghai.

He began 2007 on a promising note winning in Melbourne [ Images ] to claim his 10th Grand Slam and went on to eclipse Jimmy Connors's 30-year-old mark of 160 consecutive weeks on top of the men's rankings.

Isinbayeva, who became the first woman to clear the 5.00m mark in 2005, continued her record-breaking streak as she cleared 4.91m to set a world indoor record. In 2007, she bettered her mark by vaulting 4.93m.

She won the gold medal at the 2006 European Athletics Championships in Gothenburg in August last year.