David Nalbandian Bids For Rare Top 3 Triple vs. Roger Federer in Madrid Final

World No. 1 and defending champion Roger Federer meets unseeded David Nalbandian in Sunday's best-of-three sets championship match at the ATP Masters Series event in Madrid. The winner receives €340,000 and 500 South African Airways ATP Ranking points while the runner-up earns €170,000 and 350 ranking points.

Federer is contesting his 10th final (6-3) of the season and he is trying to capture his 15th career ATP Masters shield. Nalbandian is making his first ATP final showing of the year and he is attempting to win his first career ATP Masters Series title. Federer holds an 8-6 advantage in the pair’s head-to-head, losing their first five encounters but winning eight of the next nine (and each of the last four).

Since Boris Becker achieved the feat at Stockholm in 1994 (beating No. 3 Stich, No. 1 Sampras and No. 2 Ivanisevic), only one player has beaten the world’s Top 3 at the same event, and that player was Novak Djokovic, who achieved the feat at the ATP Masters Series event in Montreal this year (over No. 3 Andy Roddick, No. 2 Rafael Nadal and No. 1 Federer in the quarters, semis and final).

Now, Nalbandian will have a shot at pulling it off here in Madrid, having beaten No. 2 Nadal in the quarters and No. 3 Djokovic in the semis, and now getting a shot at Federer. The Argentine is 1-8 against World No. 1s in his career, his lone win coming against Federer in the Tennis Masters Cup final in 2005. Two of his eight losses came to Lleyton Hewitt while six have come to Federer.

FEDERER FASTFACTS
Another phenomenal season for the World No. 1, reaching the final at nine of 12 events entered and coming away with six titles, incl. winning his 10th, 11th and 12th career Grand Slam titles at Australian Open (second straight, third overall), Wimbledon (fifth straight) and US Open (fourth straight); has a 58-6 record going into Madrid final (34-3 on hard).

Three-time runner-up, at AMS Monte-Carlo and Roland Garros (l. to Nadal at both) and at AMS Canada in the summer (l. to Djokovic in a third set tie-break).

His three pre-final losses all came pre-quarterfinal as well, falling in the second round of AMS Indian Wells and the fourth round of AMS Miami (l. to Canas both times) and falling in the third round at AMS Rome (l. to Volandri).

His title run at AMS Hamburg broke a span of four tournaments without a title (AMS Indian Wells, AMS Miami, AMS Monte-Carlo, AMS Rome), his longest drought since he became No. 1 in the world (on February 2, 2004); the last time this occurred was when he played Gstaad, AMS Canada, Cincinnati and the US Open without a title (summer of 2003).

Split with coach Tony Roche after falling in Monte-Carlo final (to Nadal) and in third round of Rome (to Volandri); has a 39-2 mark since they split.

By virtue of his Australian Open title, became the first man to win three different Grand Slam titles at least three times; then, after one-month break, returned to action at Dubai and won his fourth title there in the last five years.

His career-best 41-match win streak came to an end with his opening round loss at Indian Wells to Canas (l. to Canas again in his next tournament in Miami).

Reached 500 career match wins on April 20 with his Monte-Carlo quarterfinal win (d. Ferrer).

Has advanced to a record 10 consecutive Grand Slam finals (8-2) since 2005 Wimbledon and his only losses came at Roland Garros (to Nadal) the last two years in the final.

Set the all-time record for most consecutive weeks at No. 1 in history of the ATP Rankings on Feb. 26, 2007, breaking the old mark of Jimmy Connors (160)…Has ranked No. 1 every week since Feb. 2, 2004, a record 194 weeks…Stands No. 4 on Weeks at No. 1 - Sampras (286), Ivan Lendl (270), Connors (268), Federer (194), and McEnroe (170).

Since the beginning of 2004, has compiled a 305-21 match record (.935) and won 40 titles in 61 tournaments; won 11 titles in 2004-05 and a career-best 12 last year when he compiled a 92-5 match record…Appeared in 16 finals in 17 events (four finals losses coming to Nadal).

Federer is the first man in history to reach all four Grand Slam finals two years in a row.

Federer has won Wimbledon and the US Open back-to-back for the last four years - no man has ever achieved that feat for more than two years running.

Having gone into the US Open as the US Open Series winner, Federer earned a $1 million bonus for his title, bringing his prize money cheque to $2.4 million, which was the largest payout in the history of professional tennis.

NALBANDIAN FASTFACTS
Comes into Madrid final with 23-17 season record (16-9 on hard).

Has reached just one quarterfinal in 15 tournaments coming in, at Barcelona (d. Moya en route; l. to Ferrer); has won back-to-back matches at six other events, however, reaching fourth round at Australian Open (l. to Haas), AMS Indian Wells (l. to Ljubicic) and Roland Garros (l. to Davydenko), and third rounds at Wimbledon (l. to Baghdatis), AMS Canada (l. to Djokovic) and US Open (l. to Ferrer in five sets after holding match point).

Although this season has seen him fall out of the Top 10 (furthermore out of the Top 20), Nalbandian has still had a solid season, maintaining a win-loss record of above .500.

After over a month off since his US Open loss to Ferrer, played his first event of the fall in Vienna last week, reaching second round (l. to eventual finalist Wawrinka in three sets).

Is 22-32 lifetime against Top 10 players (2-3 this year) going into the Madrid final.

Comes from Cordoba, the second-largest city in Argentina; his Armenian grandfather built a cement court in his backyard, where David learned to play against his two older brothers.

Compiled outstanding junior results, winning 1998 US Open title (d. Federer) and finishing runner-up at 1999 Roland Garros (l. to Coria); won 1999 Wimbledon doubles title (w/Coria).

Biggest of five career ATP singles titles came at Tennis Masters Cup in 2005 (l. to Federer in round robin portion but made it to final anyway, then d. Federer in fifth set tie-break after coming back from two-sets-to-love down); has six career wins over Federer (is 6-8 lifetime against the Swiss, which began as 5-0 but Federer has won eight of their last nine matches). (ATP Digital Services)