Switzerland's Roger Federer was handed the year's top tennis
player trophy for the fourth consecutive time at a dazzling
ceremony on Tuesday.
Swiss Roger Federer
receives his ATP World No 1 trophy by ranking during the 2007
Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai in Shanghai, China, Tuesday, Nov. 13,
2007.
The 26-year-old star, dressed in a pale grey jacket and navy
shirt, received the ATP Race award in front of thousands of fans at
Shanghai's Qi Zhong Tennis Stadium, the venue of the ongoing
Masters Cup championships.
"This is already the fourth consecutive year I've received this
trophy, and that is what I expected to defend at the beginning of
this year," Federer told the crowd.
"It's an amazing run I'm on. Obviously I hope I can maintain it
next season. I'll try my best."
Federer has ranked No. 1 every week since first taking over on
Feb. 2, 2004, and has ranked No. 1 for 198 weeks as of Nov. 12 and
broke record of Connors (160) for most consecutive weeks at No. 1
this season.
The Swiss mogul also added another three Grand Slams, taking his
total to 12, among seven titles this year.
However, Federer was upset by Chilean Fernando Gonzalez in his
opening match on Monday at the Masters Cup and needs to win the
last two round-robin matches against Nikolay Davydenko and Andy
Roddick to stay in his defending campaign.
(Xinhua News Agency November 14, 2007)
