Federer Seeks Masters Cup Hat-trick
Federer is 81-3 this season. Roger Federer is attempting to become the first man to win the Tennis Masters Cup three times, and the first man to win a year-end championships three times since Pete Sampras won the last of five ATP Tour World Championship titles in 1999. The last man to win three consecutive year-end events was Ivan Lendl, doing so 1985-1987 at the Masters (he also won 1981-82).
To date, only five men have won three or more year-end championships, and only two men, Lendl and Ilie Nastase, have won year-end championships in three consecutive years.
David Nalbandian is the first Argentine in 31 years to reach the finale final.
Three or more year-end titles
Player/No. of year-end titles/Years won
Pete Sampras 5 1991, 1994, 1996-97, 1999
Ivan Lendl 5 1981-82, 1985-87
John McEnroe 4 1978, 1983-84
Ilie Nastase 4 1971-73, 1975
Boris Becker 3 1988, 1992, 1995
Federer is also bidding to become the first player in the history of the year-end championship to win three straight season-ending titles without losing a match. (By winning the Tennis Masters Cup last year, he became the first man since Ivan Lendl in 1986-87 to win back-to-back titles at a year-end championship without losing a match.)
THE TITLE STREAK: 24 AND COUNTING
Federer has won an Open Era record 24 consecutive finals dating back to October 2003 and now has a chance to extend that to 25. His last loss in a final came to Jiri Novak in Gstaad on July 13, 2003
THE MATCH WINNING STREAK
Since losing to Nadal in the Roland Garros semifinals, Federer has compiled a career-best 35-match winning streak that is still active through the TMC semifinals, and includes titles in Halle (d. Safin), Wimbledon (d. Roddick), AMS Cincinnati (d. Roddick), US Open (d. Agassi) and Bangkok (d. Murray). This is the longest winning streak on the circuit since Thomas Muster won 35 in a row in 1995. If Federer wins today, he will go into sole possession of the fifth-longest winning streak in the Open Era, and will own the longest winning streak since John McEnroe won 42 in a row in 1983-84.
THE INDOOR STREAK
Federer has won his last 22 indoor matches (15-0 in 2005) since his last loss to Tim Henman in the quarterfinals of Rotterdam on Feb. 20, 2004
FEDERER vs NALBANDIAN
Nalbandian led their head-to-head 5-0 until the turnaround at the Tennis Masters Cup in Houston two years ago. Federer defeated the Argentine in straight sets there in their second round robin match, going on to win his first TMC title, and has since built up a four-match winning streak against Nalbandian, including in their first match in the Red Group here.
When they played each other last Sunday however, Federer was forced to rally from a third set deficit – he won six of the last seven games against Nalbandian after being 1-3 down.
At 24, Federer is the older of the pair by nearly five months. As contemporaries on the junior circuit, Federer and Nalbandian played for the very first time in the 1998 US Open junior boys’ final, with Nalbandian winning 63 75. In their other junior match-up, Federer defeated the Argentine 64 62 in the semifinals of the 1998 Orange Bowl in Florida. Federer finished 1998 at No. 1 in the ITF Junior World Rankings, while Nalbandian finished at No. 3.
By defeating Gaston Gaudio in the semifinals, Federer extended his winning streak against Argentines to 15 straight matches.
Nalbandian has a 0-4 record versus No. 1s (0-2 vs Hewitt and 0-2 vs Federer).
Federer Profile
Nalbandian Profile
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