The curse of Gillette

Gillette sporting ambassadors Thierry Henry (L), Tiger Woods (C) and Roger Federer have all made headlines for the wrong reasons recently. Photos / AP

This weekend it notched up more victims. Yes, one by one, the quartet of global sports stars who have eschewed facial hair to vaunt the merits of a close shave have, pardon the pun, been cut down by ... the curse of Gillette.

First Thierry Henry, one of Gillette's current trio of top-notch ambassadors (along with Tiger Woods and Roger Federer), goes and does that handball.

Then Woods, the golden boy of golf and all-round sporting god, makes headline news after crashing his car following an argument with his wife. Not only that, but Woods' crash was quickly followed by a shock defeat for Federer, the world's best tennis player, who was knocked out of the ATP World Tour semi-final by sixth-seeded Russian, Nikolay Davydenko. On the scale of sporting defeats, it's hardly Armageddon, but any Federer defeat is noteworthy.

Federer's loss and Woods' woes capped a hat-trick of Gillette casualties in the past 10 days: David Beckham was dropped by the multinational razor company two years ago, but he hasn't managed to shake off the legacy of its curse. As if being booed on the pitch earlier this summer by Los Angeles Galaxy fans wasn't bad enough, the footballer was last week outed as a secret asthma sufferer, after pulling out an inhaler on the bench. Critics mumbled that asthma wasn't something a sporting superstar should have tried to hide.

Meanwhile, Woods managed to land himself in hospital on Friday after totalling his car, into which he had leapt to beat a retreat from his golf club-wielding wife, Elin Nordegren. According to the gossip website TMZ, the pair had rowed about reports that Woods was seeing another woman before he took off, only to crash his SUV into a fire hydrant and then into a tree as he pulled out of the driveway of his house in Windermere, near Orlando, Florida.

The accident left Woods semi-conscious with lacerations to his lips, according to the police officers who found him. That was after his wife had smashed one of the car windows with a golf club, the key question being whether this happened before or after the crash. Woods may have escaped major injury - he was discharged yesterday - but he has some explaining to do to police who haven't yet managed to question him because he's been sleeping off the after-effects of the accident.

Or, so says his wife.

Friday's crash is the latest in a string of upsets for Woods since he signed up for the £20m campaign with Gillette last year, alongside the French striker and Swiss tennis player.

Barely three months after becoming the face of Gillette, Woods endured a double whammy. First there was the knee surgery that left him laid up for much of last year, and then, earlier this month, he disgraced himself in Melbourne at the Australian Masters. He might have won the title, but Woods lost his cool after a poor tee shot, then he slammed his club down into the turf only for it to bounce up into the spectators' gallery.

Henry has hardly fared better. Even before costing the Irish their place in next year's World Cup Finals in South Africa with his "hand Gaul" shocker, the Barcelona star had found himself touched by the curse: his form has suffered since moving to Spain, while France has been pretty lame since being knocked out of Euro 2008 in the first round.

As for Federer, he might have aced it on both the tennis and family scene in 2009 before toay's shock result, becoming a father of twins and the world's greatest tennis player. But perhaps he'd like to think again about that Gillette deal after the Davydenko defeat.

As one blogger writes: "Maybe it's a problem of hubris. Endorsing a product by yourself [Federer endorses Rolex] is one thing. But promoting yourself as a member of some exclusive fraternity of awesomeness, especially for the sake of an overpriced razor, well, that's another. Fate comes around for us all, sooner or later." It's a safe bet none of the fraternity is using the phrase: "The best a man can get".

- INDEPENDENT