Federer Gets Past Ivo, Sets Up Revenge Match vs. Nalbandian; Nadal, Haas also on Court in Paris

Third round play takes place Thursday at the last stop on the ATP's regular season circuit at the Paris Mastes with World No. 1 Roger Federer, No. 2 Rafael Nadal and No. 4/defending champion Nikolay Davydenko leading the way. They have all clinched a spot for Shanghai (along with No. 6 David Ferrer). There are 10 other contenders in action Thursday battling for the remaining two positions in the Race to Shanghai. Some of the key match-ups in the Race to Shanghai include No. 8 Tommy Haas vs. No. 17 Mikhail Youzhny, No. 9 Tommy Robredo vs. No. 16 Guillermo Canas and No. 10 James Blake vs. No. 13 Richard Gasquet.

Federer, a three set winner yesterday over Ivo Karlovic, will seek revenge against David Nalbandian. The Argy beat Federer in three sets in the Madrid final two weeks ago. Nadal will meet Fed's countryman Stan Wawrinka also in the third round.

FEDERER FASTFACTS

By virtue of his title run last week in Basel, clinched the year-end No. 1 ranking for this year; just fifth player in history to earn year-end No. 1 ranking four or more times (after Connors, McEnroe, Lendl, Sampras) and fourth to do it four in a row (Connors, McEnroe, Sampras).

With his quarterfinal victory over Kiefer last week in Basel, Federer passed Moya for most ATP singles match wins for an active player (rising to 544 that day; Moya has 543).

With his semifinal win over Karlovic in Basel last week, Federer extended his semifinal win streak to 33; he has now won 51 of his last 53, his only two semifinal losses since the end of 2003 coming in 2005 at the Australian Open (falling to Safin) and Roland Garros (to Nadal).

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 196 weeks. Stands No. 4 on Weeks at No. 1 - Sampras (286), Ivan Lendl (270), Connors (268), Federer (196), and McEnroe (170).

Since the beginning of 2004, has compiled a 311-22 match record (.934) and won 41 titles in 63 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 third round of AMS Paris with 27-18 season record (19-9 on hard).

Made best performance of season two weeks ago at AMS Madrid, becoming just second player since Becker at 1994 Stockholm to d. Top 3 players at same tournament (d. No. 2 Nadal in quarterfinals, No. 3 Djokovic in semifinals and No. 1 Federer in final, snapping a four-match losing streak against the Swiss superstar); was first AMS shield; the next week, rose from No. 25 to No. 18 in ATP Rankings but fell first round at Basel (l. to Wawrinka).

Had reached just one quarterfinal in 15 tournaments going into AMS Madrid, 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).

Is 23-32 lifetime against Top 10 players (3-3 this year) going into Paris third round. (ATP Digital Services)