Federer Finishes With a Roar Taking Record 6th ATP World Cup Title

Roger Federer won a record sixth ATP World Cup title, getting his 70th ATP singles title in his 100th final, finishing the season with 17 straight wins, culminating with a tough victory over Jo WIlfried Tsonga, 6-3, 6-7(3), 6-3 in London today.

It was an intense match, with Tsonga coming back from a set-and-a-break down to win the second-set tiebreak. With his back to the wall, Tsonga started hammering the ball, from 137 mph serves, seemingly hitting the line at will, to 90+ mph forehands. But, Fed hung on against the onslaught of gonzo, go-for-broke tennis, overcoming nerves that appeared to take his first serve away for much of the third set. Fed got the decisive break by blocking back several more 133-137 mph serves, and defending well as Tsonga attacked the net, then closed out his own serve easily. 

Fed ended the season with 17 straight victories, including helping his Swiss Davis Cup team beat Australia, and titles in Basel, Paris, and now the year-end World Cup. During this run, Fed beat Rafael Nadal 6-3, 6-0, Tsonga three times, Tomas Berydch, and David Ferrer. 

By contrast, Nadal ended the ATP year with 4 losses in his last 10 matches, while Novak Djokovic's spectacular year petered out with 5 losses in his last 11 mathces, including yet another retirement during a match, this against Juan Martin del Potro, and another withdrawal, against Tsonga in Paris. (Click to enlarge ESPN table below)

The ATP World Cup is arguably the toughest event of the year, since only the top 8 players in the world are invited, and with a round robin preceding the semfinals, it creates the dynamic, unusal to tennis, that players have to keep playing after a loss, or occasionally, have to beat the same player twice in one week, never a easy accomplishment against the top ten. 

Update: adding YouTube embed with highlights at the bottom. 

The only players to emerge from the event with winning records, were Fed at 5-0, and Tsonga at 3-2. 

Fed had been tied with Pete Sampras and Ivan Lendl for most ATP World Cup titles at five. 

With only the Davis Cup finals between Spain and Argentina remaining, the year-end standings will be with my unoffical won-loss numbers:

1) Novak Djokovic, 70-6

2) Rafael Nadal, 67-15 

3) Roger Federer, 64-12 

Here are the round robin results, not including the semifinals and finals (Table and top head shot from ATP at http://www.atpworldtour.com/ ):