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Federer's lucky numbers



Roger Federer completed one of the best seasons in tennis history with a typically emphatic victory in Sunday's Masters Cup final. BBC Sport's Caroline Cheese analyses his remarkable year in numbers.

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Tournament he did not reach the final in: 1
Tournament bosses can be pretty sure that if Federer enters their event, he will also feature in the final. The world number one signed up for 17 tournaments in 2006 and was still in the mix on the final Sunday on all but one occasion.
His only real failure came at the Cincinnati Masters in August, when the tired Swiss, who had triumphed at the Toronto Masters only four days earlier, was beaten by 19-year-old Briton Andy Murray in round two.

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Players who beat Federer: 2
Plenty took a set from him, Andy Roddick even had match points against him in Shanghai, but only Murray and Rafael Nadal actually posted wins against the world number one this season.
Nadal took out Federer on four occasions, three times on clay and once on a hard court, but the 25-year-old star appeared to have re-established his authority by winning their last two meetings of the season.

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Consecutive years at number one: 3
When Pete Sampras retired, he must have been pretty confident that his astonishing record of finishing six years in a row as the world's number one would stand the test of time - but Federer is already halfway there.
Federer has also set a new ranking points record of 8,370 and will pass Jimmy Connors' record of 160 consecutive weeks as world number one on 26 February 2007 - even if were to lose every match until then.

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Masters Series titles: 4
By triumphing in Madrid in October, Federer became the first player in Masters Series history to win four or more Masters events in consecutive seasons.
He is also the first man in the Open era to pick up 10 or more titles for three seasons in a row and has won 77.6% of the finals he has contested in his career, bettering Sampras (72.7%), John McEnroe (71.3%) and Bjorn Borg (70.5%)

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The number of times he has lost this season: 5
McEnroe still holds the all-time record of losing only three matches in a season. But though Federer lost five in 2006, he posted 92 wins - 10 more than McEnroe managed in his remarkable 1984 season.
Federer is also the first player since Ivan Lendl in 1982 to win more than 90 matches in a season and has now won more than 80 matches in back-to-back seasons.

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Consecutive Grand Slam finals: 6
By reaching the US Open final in 2006, Federer became the first player since Rod Laver in 1961-62 to reach six consecutive Grand Slam finals.
By lifting the trophy in New York, the world number one became the first man ever to win the Wimbledon-US Open double three years in a row.

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Million dollars: 7
Last week's group victory over Roddick at the Masters Cup in Shanghai took Federer's season's total to $7,133,885 (£3,750,000), making him the first player in history to make more than $7m in a season.
He then surpassed that total on Sunday when his straight-sets demolition of James Blake in the Shanghai final made him the first player to earn more than $8m.

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The number of players to have won four or more Wimbledon titles: 8
Federer joined that elite group when he defeated Nadal in an enthralling Wimbledon final in July, leaving the likes of McEnroe, Connors and Boris Becker in his wake. Only Bjorn Borg, Pete Sampras and now Federer have won four or more consecutively.
And while Nadal was feted for breaking the record for consecutive wins on clay in May, Federer quietly passed the grass-court record at Wimbledon, extending it to 48 in the final.

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Grand Slam titles: 9
Three more Grand Slam titles this year took Federer to a total of nine, behind only Bill Tilden (10), Rod Laver (11), Bjorn Borg (11), Roy Emerson (12) and record-holder Sampras (14).
By capturing the Australian Open in January, Federer became the first man to win three consecutive Grand Slam titles since Sampras in 1994.

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Percentage of service games lost: 10
And that is a tour record for the year, overshadowing big-serving rivals Andy Roddick, Ivan Ljubicic and Mario Ancic. Roddick, in fact, also won 90% of his service games - but he played only 63 matches, 32 less than his Swiss rival.
The all-conquering Federer also tops the charts on second serve points won, break points saved and points won returning first serve.

Source: BBC >>