The line-up for the first semi-final in our quest to find the Greatest Sportsman in the world has been completed with Roger Federer joining Ronaldinho, Ronnie O'Sullivan and Sebastien Loeb.

But it was no walk in the park for one of the pre-tournament favourites in a record-setting week.

An enormous 33,000 votes were cast - 57% of which went the way of Croat handball superstar Ivano Balic.

Whilst Federer was dumped out of the Australian Open in the semi-finals, Balic was leading his country to the final of the European Championships.

But we think it was the half-page spread in a Zagreb newspaper and a strong nationalist fervour that earned Balic more votes than any other man in the competition so far.

However, Federer gained 32% of the vote and with his unanimous first place vote amongst the experts, he edges out Balic who was third behind Ole Einar Bjoerndalen in the votes cast by our trio of sages.

That may have been the Group of Death but this week we have another intriguing mix of sport stars competing for a place in the second semi-final.

Kobe Bryant (Basketball), Tyson Gay (Athletics), Lionel Messi (Football) and Valentino Rossi (Moto GP) are all hoping to move into the next round - and it looks an open heat.

Why not join thousands of others and vote for your favourite via the poll on our homepage? To help you make your choice, you can read bios of the latest four contenders by clicking on the link below the picture.

So what is "The Greatest"?

It is eurosport.yahoo.com's quest to find the greatest sportsman in the world today and we need your help.

We have selected 32 of the greatest athletes in the world to contest the honour and they have been randomly drawn into eight groups of four.

Half of the votes will be decided by the results of our online poll and half by our panel of experts.

And in the great tradition of reality TV shows, in the case of a tie you get the final say.

The winner of each of the eight pools will go into the semi-finals with the winners of those two subsequent groups going into the head-to-head final.

Meet our team of experts:

Gary Imlach - presenter of ITV's coverage of the Tour de France; Channel 4's coverage of the NFL; Eurosport's coverage of the African Nations Cup and winner of the 2005 William Hill Sports Book of the Year award.

Simon Reed - commentated on the last seven Wimbledon Championships for the BBC as well as cricket for Sky Sports plus tennis and ice skating for Eurosport.

Mr Ed - Eurosport-Yahoo's managing editor gets a vote - after all it was his idea.

Their votes for each group have been put in a sealed envelope so not to be influenced by the poll result and paradoxically their decision will not be revealed until each Wednesday morning when the poll ends and the winner is unveiled.

Here's the draw:

Group A: Ronaldinho (Football) (Winner: Poll: 42%; Experts: 2nd) ; Thierry Henry (Football) (Out: Poll 37%; Experts: 4th); Robert Scheidt (Sailing) (Out: Poll: 4%; Experts: 1st) Steve Nash (Basketball) (Out: Poll 16%; Experts 3rd).

Group B: Cristiano Ronaldo (Football) (Out: Poll 56%; Experts: 4th); Ricky Ponting (Cricket) (Out: Poll 6%; Experts 1st); Dan Carter (Rugby) (Out: Poll 5%; Expert 3rd); Ronnie O'Sullivan (Snooker) (Winner: Poll 34%; Experts 2nd)

Group C: Kaka (Football) (Out: Poll 56%; Experts: 3rd); Richie McCaw (Rugby) (Out: Poll 4%; Experts: 4th); Sebastien Loeb (WRC) (Winner : Poll 25%; Experts 1st); Kenenisa Bekele (Athletics) (Out: Poll 15%; Experts 3rd)

Group D: Roger Federer (Tennis) (Winner : Poll 32%; Experts 1st); Floyd Mayweather (Boxing) (Out: Poll 4%; Experts: 4th); Ole Einar Bjoerndalen (Biathlon) (Out: Poll 7%; Experts: 2nd); Ivano Balic (Handball) (Out: Poll 57%; Experts: 3rd)

Group E: Lionel Messi (Football); Valentino Rossi (Moto GP); Tyson Gay (Athletics); Kobe Bryant (Basketball)

Group F: Michael Phelps (Swimming); Thomas Morgenstern (Ski Jumping); Tom Brady (NFL); Giba (Volleyball)

Group G: Tiger Woods (Golf); Jeremy Wariner (Athletics); Chris Hoy (Cycling); Peyton Manning (NFL)

Group H: Fernando Alonso (Formula One); Muttiah Muralitharan (Cricket); Bryan Habana (Rugby); Sidney Crosby (NHL)

It's not about how popular the sports are but more of a reflection on what each individual brings to his respective sport - in terms of domination, entertainment and longevity.

Is Ronaldinho's contribution to football since the millennium worth more than Lionel Messi's value today? Is Ole Einar Bjoerndalen more talented that Kaka?

You decide!

So get voting on the home page poll right now and to help your choice, remember there is a bio of each the Group E contestants available by clicking on the link under the photo.

Eurosport