Federer To Chase Fifth Title

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Swiss Roger Federer was the second player to qualify for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. As a four-time champion at the prestigious circuit-finale he will be making his eighth straight appearance (28-5 record) this year.

2009 In Review

Federer clinched his place at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in dramatic fashion, after he defeated American Andy Roddick 16-14 in the fifth set of The Championships final at Wimbledon.

The victory earned him a record-breaking 15th Grand Slam singles title and helped him to reclaim the No. 1 spot in the South African Airways 2009 ATP Rankings. It was his sixth Wimbledon crown and 60th tour-level title.

The 28 year old became just the sixth man in tennis history to win the career Grand Slam of the four major championships when he finally laid his hands on the Roland Garros trophy with victory over Robin Soderling. He had been denied achieving the career Grand Slam at the start of the season with a five-set loss to Rafael Nadal in the final of the Australian Open.

The Basel native ended a seven-month title drought in May by capturing the Mutua Madrileña Madrid Open (d. Nadal). In August, he went on to capture his 16th ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title at the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters in Cincinnati (d. Djokovic), before finishing runner-up in his quest for a sixth straight US Open title, losing to Argentine Juan Martin del Potro in a pulsating final.

The Basel native led his country to a Davis Cup World Group play-off victory over Italy in mid-September, before taking six-week break and returning with a runner-up effort at his hometown tournament (l. to Djokovic).

Finals History

Federer secured his qualification for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in July.

After reaching the semi-finals (l. to Hewitt) on his debut in 2002, Federer won back-to-back titles in 2003 (d. Agassi) and 2004 (d. Hewitt). Federer’s title success was briefly interrupted by David Nalbandian in 2005 as the Argentine recovered from a two-set deficit to claim a dramatic five-set victory in the final. But Federer hit back to win two more titles in 2006 (d. Blake) and 2007 (d. Ferrer).

Last year in Shanghai, he failed to advance past the group stages for the first time after losing a gripping three-set encounter with Andy Murray.