FINAL REVIEW - FEDERER RALLIES FROM TWO SETS DOWN TO WIN 18th CONSECUTIVE FINAL

• Roger Federer won his 18^th consecutive final when he rallied from two sets down to defeat 18-year-old Spaniard Rafael Nadal 2-6, 6-7(4),  7-6 (5), 6-3, 6-1 in the final of the NASDAQ-100 Open.
• Following his victory at the Pacific Life Open last month, Federer won consecutive ATP Masters Series titles for the second time in two seasons, having won Hamburg and Toronto in 2004. The Swiss has won four of the past five ATP Masters Series tournaments he has contested and five of the past eight he has entered.
• Nadal was within two points of a straight-sets win at 5-3 in the third-set tie-break – but Federer clinched the third set on his first set point and then won 12 of the next 16 games to close out the match. 
• Federer had trailed 1-4 in the third set. 
• Federer improved to 32-1 on the year  – the best start to a season since John McEnroe began 1984 39-0. The Swiss improved his winning streak to 22 matches – his third 20-plus match streak in the past 10 months.
• Federer has won four consecutive tournaments and eight of the past nine events has entered.
• The INDESIT ATP 2005 Race leader has won 48 of 49 matches since the beginning of the US Open, losing only to Marat Safin in this year’s Australian Open semifinals (9-7 in the fifth after holding one match point).
• Federer is the first top seed to win in Miami since Pete Sampras (d. Agassi) in 1994 and earns $533,350.
• Federer has won three of the North American hard court ATP Masters Series titles (he is missing only Cincinnati). He has six career ATP Masters Series titles: Indian Wells (2004-’05), Miami (’05), Hamburg (2002-’04), Toronto (’04)
• Nadal, who defeated Federer in the third round in Miami last year, was the youngest finalist in the history of the tournament and was attempting to become the first Spaniard to win the title.
• Nadal came into his first ATP Masters Series final and second career hard court final (Auckland, 2004) on a 15-match winning streak, having won back-to-back clay court titles in Costa do Sauipe and Acapulco. 
• Nadal moves to fourth place in the INDESIT ATP 2005 Race.

UPDATED INDESIT ATP 2005 RACE

Player                       Points

1. Roger Federer        450

2. Lleyton Hewitt          253

3. Marat Safin              215

4. Rafael Nadal            206             

5. Andy Roddick          193

6. Ivan Ljubicic            192

7. Andre Agassi          155

8. Joachim Johansson 115                             

9. Gaston Gaudio        109

10. Nikolay Davydenko103

2005 ATP MATCH WINS LEADERS

                                    W-L       Titles

Roger Federer             32-1         4

Ivan Ljubicic                  26-8         0

Rafael Nadal                 22-4         2

Lleyton Hewitt              18-3         1

Andy Roddick              18-4         1

INDIAN WELLS/MIAMI SWEEP – Federer  is the sixth player to win Indian Wells and Miami in the same year, the first since Andre Agassi in 2001. Here are the players who have won the first two ATP Masters Series titles of the year:

                                      Indian Wells                      Miami

2005  Roger Federer        d. Lleyton Hewitt                  d. Rafael Nadal

 2001 Andre Agassi         d. Pete Sampras                  d. Jan-Michael Gambill

1998 Marcelo Rios          d. Greg Rusedski                  d. Andre Agassi

1994 Pete Sampras        d. Petr Korda                        d. Andre Agassi

1992 Michael Chang       d. Andrei Chesnokov              d. Alberto Mancini

1991 Jim Courier            d.  Guy Forget                       d. David Wheaton

ATP LONGEST MATCH WINNING STREAKS (since 1990)

Player                           Matches

1. Thomas Muster          35 (1995)

2. Pete Sampras            29 (1994) 

3. Roger Federer          26 (2004-05) 

    Andre Agassi             26 (1995)

5. Jim Courier                25 (1992)

6. Pete Sampras            24 (1999)

7. Roger Federer             23 (2004)  

8. Roger Federer          22  (2005)   

 9 . Stefan Edberg            21 (1990, ’91)

    Ivan Lendl                   21 (1990)

    Pete Sampras            21 (1996) 

12.Pete Sampras           20 (1996-97) 

CAREER ATP MASTERS SERIES TITLE LEADERS  -- Federer won his sixth

career ATP Masters Series title. Here are the title leaders since 1990:

                                     No.

1) Andre Agassi        17

2) Pete Sampras      11

3) Thomas Muster      8

4) Michael Chang       7 

5) Roger Federer       6

 6 ) Boris Becker, Jim Courier, Gustavo Kuerten, Marcelo Rios, Marat Safin

FIVE-SET  FEDERER 
Federer  improved to an 8-8 career record in five-set matches a after the Miami final. It was the third  time he had come back from a 0-2 sets deficit :