World number one Roger Federer beat seven-time Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher and golfer Tiger Woods to win his third straight Laureus World Sportsman of the Year award in a glittering evening in Barcelona 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 record-breaking pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva 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 took the comeback of the year award, with the breakthrough award going to fellow tennis player Amelie Mauresmo after the Frenchwoman won her first two grand slam titles at the Australian Open and Wimbledon.

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

He began 2007 on a promising note winning in Melbourne 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.