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[Sahir]

He has reached the finals of yet another tournament-- the AIG Japan Open.  He beat Benjamin Becker comfortably in the semis and will face a seemingly resurgent Tim Henman in the final.  Should he win, this will be his 42nd singles title, all by the age of 25.

[Sahir]

Here's some of Roger's great tennis achievements:

Streaks:

In 2001, Federer ended Pete Sampras' 31 match unbeaten streak at Wimbledon in the fourth round.

Federer's victory at the 2004 U.S. Open marked the first time in the open era that anyone had won his first four Grand Slam finals. He eventually won his first seven Grand Slam finals before losing to Rafael Nadal in the 2006 French Open final.

Federer is the first player since Ivan Lendl in 1986-87 to win back-to-back Tennis Masters Cup titles without losing a match.

In 2004, Federer became the tenth different player in the open era to win at least 11 singles titles in a season. He is the first year-end No. 1 to register 11 titles since Lendl in 1985. In addition, Federer is the only player to win at least 10 titles in a season without losing in a final.

Federer is the first player since Björn Borg in 1979 to win consecutive tournaments on three different surfaces, having captured titles at Wimbledon (grass), Gstaad (clay), and Toronto (hard).

Federer won a record 26 consecutive matches against top ten ranked opponents. The streak lasted from October 2003 to January 2005, when he lost to Marat Safin in a semifinal of the Australian Open.

Federer won his 27th consecutive match over American players when he defeated Andy Roddick in the 2006 U.S. Open final. His last loss was also to Roddick in a semifinal of the 2003 Canadian Masters.

Federer's loss against Richard Gasquet in the 2005 Monte Carlo Masters brought his win-loss tally to 35-2 for 2005, the best start on the men's tour since John McEnroe, who holds the record with 39-0 in 1984.

Federer has won four consecutive men's singles titles at Wimbledon, a feat accomplished only by Borg and Sampras in the open era. In the 28 matches Federer played at Wimbledon from 2003 through 2006, he dropped just five sets (winning 84). In comparison, Borg and Sampras lost 15 and 14 sets respectively over a similar four-year period.

Federer has won at least 70 matches in four consecutive seasons (2003: 78-17, 2004: 74-6, 2005: 81-4, 2006: 70-5 (through the 2006 U.S. Open)).

Federer is the fifth player in the history of the ATP computer rankings to rank No. 1 every week during a calendar year (others: Jimmy Connors, Lendl, Sampras, and Lleyton Hewitt), having accomplished this feat in both 2005 and 2006.

Federer has held a record-tying four winning streaks of at least 20 matches. The first one was a 23-match winning streak in mid-2004. The second one was a 26-match streak spanning the latter half of 2004 and early 2005. The third was a 25-match streak in early 2005. The fourth streak counted 35 matches including tournament wins at Halle, Wimbledon, Cincinnati, the U.S. Open, one Davis Cup match, Bangkok, and four Tennis Masters Cup matches at the end of 2005. Sampras also had four such streaks in his entire career. Federer's win against Fabrice Santoro in New York allowed him to tie the record. The 35-match winning streak is the fifth longest in the men's game, at par with Thomas Muster's streak in 1995 and Borg's streak in 1978.

By winning in Bangkok in September 2005, Federer had won his 24th straight final dating back to Vienna in October 2003. His undefeated streak in finals is a new open era record. The previous record was 12 straight final wins, shared by McEnroe and Borg. It marked also the first time Federer won five consecutive tournaments he entered. Nalbandian's win over Federer in the final of the Tennis Masters Cup meant the end of two records: his finals streak of 24 and his 35-match overall winning streak.

With an 81-4 record in 2005, Federer's winning percentage of 95.3 was second only to McEnroe's open era record, who had a 96.5 percentage and an 82-3 record in 1984.

With his victory over Marcos Baghdatis at the 2006 Australian Open, Federer became the first man to win three consecutive Grand Slam titles since Sampras in 1993-94.

After Federer's third round win over Tommy Haas at the Nasdaq 100 Open in Key Biscayne, Florida, Federer broke the previous record for consecutive matches won in Masters Series events, held at 19 by Sampras. His streak reached 29 matches before he lost to Nadal.

Federer holds the record for most consecutive singles wins in North America, winning 55 matches before losing to Andy Murray in August 2006.

By winning the Nasdaq 100 Open title in Key Biscayne, Florida, on April 2, 2006, Federer became the only player in history to win the first two Masters Series events of the year two years in a row[12]. It was also his 11th consecutive final and 10th Masters Series title.

Federer currently owns 11 Masters Series shields, equalling Sampras. He is second to Andre Agassi, who has 17 Masters shields.

Federer holds the longest winning streak on hard courts: 56 matches (2005-06). The streak was ended by Nadal in the Dubai final in March 2006.

With his win against Richard Gasquet in the first round of the 2006 Wimbledon, Federer surpassed Borg's 41-match grass court winning streak record. Borg set this record from 1976 to 1981, while playing Wimbledon only. Federer then won his 4th consecutive Wimbledon title with a victory over Nadal, taking the streak to 48.

Records:

Federer was presented the inaugural "Golden Bagel Award" in 2004, a light-hearted award based on a trivial statistic given to the men's professional tennis player who serves up more "bagels" (sets won 6-0) than any other player in any given year. Federer gave out 12 "bagels" in 2004. He also served 23 "bread sticks" (6-1 sets won). Since turning 18, Federer has not been bagelled himself.

Federer is the first player to win four Tennis Masters Series titles in one season. He also is only the third player to have won all four North American ATP Masters Series events in a career (along with Andre Agassi and Michael Chang).

Federer and Agassi are the only two players to win the seven major hardcourt titles (the 4 Masters Series events plus the Australian Open, the US Open, and the year-end Tennis Masters Cup).

Winning the 2005 Halle doubles title with fellow Swiss Yves Allegro marked the fact that Federer has now won singles and doubles titles on all four surfaces: hardcourt, clay, carpet, and grass.

Federer defeated Gaston Gaudio 6-0, 6-0 in a semifinal of the 2005 Tennis Masters Cup. This was the first time a Masters Cup match had been won with a "double bagel."

By reaching the final of the U.S. Open in 2006, Federer became the first man in the open era to make it to six consecutive Grand Slam finals (winning five of the six).

By reaching the semifinals at the 2006 U.S. Open, Federer tied Ivan Lendl's record of 10 consecutive Grand Slam semifinal appearances.

Federer won four consecutive titles at one event for the first time on June 18, 2006, at the Gerry Weber Open and tied Björn Borg's record of 41 straight grass-court wins with a 6-0, 6-7, 6-2 victory over Tomas Berdych. He repeated this feat by winning his fourth consecutive Wimbledon championship on July 9, 2006, beating Nadal in the final.

By winning the 2006 U.S. Open, Federer became the only male player to win both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in the same year for 3 consecutive years.

Ranking and points records:

Federer's tally of 1345 ATP Race points in 2005 set a new record since the Race began in 2000. He held the previous record of 1267 points in 2004, which had broken Andy Roddick's 907-point record in 2003.

With totals of 6335 points end 2004 and 6725 points end 2005, Federer finished with the highest number of year-ending ATP tour ranking points since the ATP circuit began in 1990, although the points breakdown changed slightly in 2000. The previous year-ending highest rating was Pete Sampras' 5097 points in 1994.

Federer holds all the records for the highest ranking points at any time of the year: currently his record is at 7760 points (August 14, 2006). His next-highest score is 7295.

As of October 2nd, 2006, Federer has held the #1 spot on the ATP rankings for 140 consecutive weeks. This is the third longest streak in history with only Ivan Lendl and Jimmy Connors surpassing him in uninterrupted time at the top. This streak surpasses the overall career total of Bjorn Borg (sixth), who held that spot for 109 weeks. Only John McEnroe (170 weeks), Connors (268 weeks), Lendl (270 weeks), and Sampras (286 weeks) have had longer runs in total at the top. Federer has clinched the top spot in the ATP rankings through the end of 2006.

[suraj]

The best tennis player ever when its all said and done

[Sahir]

Roger up 3-2 in the first set, on serve.

[Sahir]

Roger wins the first set 6-3

[Sahir]

Roger coasting up 4-2 in the second set as well

[Sahir]

Chalk up another one for the champ-- 6-3, 6-3.  That's now 42 career singles titles and he increases the already large gap in the rankings between one and two.

[Sahir]

Roger wins yet another Masters series tournament, bringing his tally to 12, pulling ahead of Sampras and only trailing Agassi at 17.  Just as impressive was how dominant he was, anhilating David Nalbandian in 58 minutes and winning a set 6-0 against both Nalabandian and Gonzalez in the semis and finals.

[Sahir]

Roger wins yet another tournament doninating the opposition, beating Gonzalez in straight sets in the final, after having served up a couple of bagels earlier in the tournament.  This is Roger's 44th singles title and he has now won 4 straight tournaments.  Next week he will play in another Masters Series tournament in Paris.  The season will end after that at the Tennis Masters tournament at Shanghai.

[Sahir]

Roger pulled out of this week's Paris Masters Series tournament citing fatigue.  Unfortunately for the tournament, he is not the only top player to pull out as Nadal, Roddick, and Ljubicic have also all pulled out.

[toney]

No wonder; I mean, how many can high intensity matches can you play in a year? And are you sure the reason was fatigue? Or was it boredom?

[Sahir]

No wonder; I mean, how many can high intensity matches can you play in a year? And are you sure the reason was fatigue? Or was it boredom?

Considering how he continues to get himslef up for match after match, it cannot be boredom, otherwise even a great player like him would lose a few more.  He mentioned it was fatigue and I think it is a good idea for him to pull out.  There is no reason for him to play three weeks in a row.  Just pull out and prepare for the Masters at Shanghai.  He has already sealed up the #1 ranking for the end of the year and set a record for the highest points total (rankings wise) in the history of tennis.

[Sahir]

Roger continuing his dominant run, having won all three matches in his round robin section of the Masters Cup.  The only real challenge was put up by Roddick who failed to capitalize on three match points in the second set, including one on his own serve.