> The Masters Cup : Season ending mens tennis tournament

est eight players, teams head to Shanghai for Nov. 12-19 championship

American James Blake claimed the final spot in the elite eight-player Tennis Masters Cup and will be making his first appearance in the prestigious circuit finale, to be held from November 12-19 at Shanghai’s Qi Zhong Stadium.

Blake secured his qualification Saturday after the lone remaining contender, Germany’s Tommy Haas (12th), was defeated in the BNP Paribas Masters semifinals by Dominik Hrbaty. Blake, who fell in third round action Thursday at the final ATP Masters Series event of 2006, finished the regular ATP season at No. 8 in the INDESIT ATP 2006 Race with a 14-point lead over No. 9 Mario Ancic.

“Qualifying for Tennis Masters Cup is a great accomplishment signifying an all-around good year,” said Blake. “It’s not something I set as a goal, but I’m honored to be considered among the game’s elite.”

The 26-year-old Blake has compiled his best career season, finishing in the Top 10 for the first time and capturing five ATP titles on three continents in seven finals. His five titles – in Sydney, Las Vegas, Indianapolis, Bangkok and Stockholm – tied Blake with Rafael Nadal in second place for most titles won in 2006, behind ATP World No. 1 Roger Federer with 11. Blake broke into the Top 10 in March after reaching his first ATP Masters Series final, at the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, and became the first African-American to rank in Top 10 since Arthur Ashe in 1980.

Blake joins an elite field that includes fellow American Andy Roddick, Federer, Nadal, Davydenko, reigning Tennis Masters Cup champion David Nalbandian and Tommy Robredo.

Federer Wins Tennis Masters Cup Title Over Blake; Ends 2006 Season With 92-5 Record

· ATP World No. 1 Roger Federer of Switzerland won his third Tennis Masters Cup title in four years with a 6-0, 6-3, 6-4 victory over American James Blake in Shanghai on Sunday.

· The 25-year-old Federer hit 11 aces, with 41 winners and 26 unforced errors during the final, which last one hour and 36 minutes. Blake hit four aces, two double faults with 18 winners and 27 unforced errors.

· Federer broke the Blake serve six times from 13 opportunities in comparison to Blake, who managed one service break from 11 opportunities. Federer won 100 of 167 points in total. Federer now holds a 6-0 career-lead over Blake, winning four-out-of-four meetings in 2006.

Federer : Masters Cup Trivia


· The result means Federer becomes the first professional tennis player ever to earn $8 million in prize money in a single season. He surpassed the $7 million prize money mark after his Red Group round-robin defeat of Andy Roddick on Tuesday.

· He has won $8,343,885 in 2006 and has amassed $29,576,458 in career prize money during a nine-season professional career.

· Victory in the final saw Federer become the first man to win three circuit-ending championships since Pete Sampras won the last of five ATP Tour World Championship titles in 1999.

· To date, only five men have won three or more year-end championships, including John McEnroe (1978, 1983-84), Boris Becker (1988, 1992, 1995), Ilie Nastase (1971-73, 1975), Ivan Lendl (1981-81, 1985-87) and Sampras (1991, 1994, 1996-97, 1999).

· Federer is the first man to contest four consecutive finals at a circuit-ending championship since Ivan Lendl, who reached a record nine finals in a row between 1980-1988.

· Federer was making his fifth consecutive Tennis Masters Cup appearance. After reaching the semifinals at Shanghai in 2002, he won consecutive titles at Houston in 2003-04, before his 14-match Masters Cup winning streak was ended in last year’s Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai final by David Nalbandian. Federer now holds a 22-2 overall record at the circuit-ending finale.

· He beat No. 2 Rafael Nadal 6-4, 7-5 in the semifinals on Saturday, having won all three Red Group matches to extend his unbeaten Tennis Masters Cup round-robin record to 15-0. He defeated defending champion Nalbandian 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 in his first match, the second successive year he had beaten the Argentine in his opening contest. He then saved three match points to beat Roddick 4-6, 7-6(8), 6-4. In his final match he overcame Ivan Ljubicic, 7-6(2), 6-4.

Federer : Player profile

• Federer has now played 608 career matches, winning 483 of them. His match record from 1998-2003 was 236-110 with 11 titles, but over the past three years he is a sensational 247-15 with 34 titles.

• Federer has a 29-match winning streak – his fifth streak of at least 20 wins (see chart below). He has now won 12 titles this year, matching surpassing his totals for each of the past two years, and more than doubling Blake, Nikolay Davydenko and Nadal, who are tied for second with five. Federer is the first player in Open Era history to record double-digit numbers in titles for three consecutive years.

• Federer’s record for 2006 is 92-5, his career high for wins in a year, exceeding last year’s finish of 81-4. Federer is the first player to rack up at least 80 wins two years in a row since Ivan Lendl went 96-14 in 1981 and 106-9 in 1982.

• Federer’s 45 career titles rank him No. 11 on the Open Era list. Next up is No. 10 Rod Laver with 47.

• Federer reached the final in 16 of 17 tournaments this year and 22 of 23 going back to June 2005.

• Federer is 12-4 in finals this year and 45-13 for his career. His career winning percentage of 77.2 in finals, compares favorably with those of all-time greats Sampras, who won 72.7 percent (64/88); McEnroe, who won 71.3 percent (77/108); and Bjorn Borg, who won 70.5 percent (62/88).

• The Swiss extends his own INDESIT ATP Race record with 1,674 points in 2006, which is 780 points more than No.2 Nadal who holds 894 points this year.

• Federer was honored on court on Monday for his record-setting season, and presented with the INDESIT ATP 2006 Race trophy for finishing the year at No. 1.

• Has ranked No. 1 every week since Feb. 2, 2004, the third-longest consecutive streak (146 as of Nov. 13) behind Jimmy Connors (160) and Lendl (157). Will break Connors' mark if he remains No. 1 until Feb. 26, 2007. Stands fifth in total weeks at No. 1 behind Sampras (286), Lendl (270), Connors (268), McEnroe (170), and Federer (146).

WHAT THE PLAYERS SAID

Federer:

"It's quite incredible. To finish off the season by winning the Masters Cup is really, for me. It's obviously the perfect ending to an incredible season. There's not much more I could have done. I gave myself the best possible chance basically at every event. To come out like this, on top, I surprised even myself.

"I had to laugh at one stage how well I was playing, I always came up with a great answer, you know. I was in control pretty much all the time.

"Everything I wanted to do worked. To come to this point in my career where I feel so happy with my game, it's come such a long way, you know, that I also am out of words really to describe this performance."

Blake:

“There is nothing I could have done. He [Roger Federer] played too good. I will probably run out of adjectives to describe him on the court. He is unbelievable, he steps it up even more in finals. I definitely think I could have played a little better, but to be perfectly honest I don’t think it would have mattered today. I wish I could have done more. I wish I could have been out there longer, but what can you do?

“I wish I could have done better, but that was my best for today. There will be day’s when I play above my level, and others when I will play below my level. I cannot say that today was much below my level, Roger just played better than me in every facet of the game."

Bjorkman & Mirnyi Win Tennis Masters Cup Title Over Knowles & Nestor

Jonas Bjorkman and Max Mirnyi got things right this year at the Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai.

Playing in their second consecutive circuit-ending tournament together, Bjorkman and Mirnyi went from winning no matches at the event in 2005 to winning every match they played in 2006.

The end result: Bjorkman and Mirnyi won their first career Tennis Masters Cup title together with a scorching 6-2, 6-4 victory over Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor.

“I think we saved the best until last, and we couldn't have finished the year better than this way,” Bjorkman said. “We just played probably the best match of the year.”

“We felt really good. [We] had no stiffness after that long match yesterday. Like I said, we’re used to play a lot of matches. I think that actually helped us, that we had a tough one yesterday. We came out here and were ready to rock and played almost a hundred percent perfect match.”