Roger Federer of Switzerland, the World's #1 Player, playing against his arch-nemesis David Nalbandian of Argentina in the final match of the 2005 ATP Tour tennis season came within two points of sealing his place in history by tying John Mcenroe's 1984 record of 82-3. However, it was not to be. Federer's season ended at 81-4. He lost, for the first time since his French Open semifinal loss to Rafael Nadal in a thrilling, 4 and a half hour match 6-7(4), 6-7(11), 6-1, 6-2, 7-6(3). It was high high drama on the tennis court. One of the few players who still gives Federer considerable difficulty is Nalbandian. This was their tenth professional match and Nalbandian had won the first 5 but lost the last 4 against Federer. Nalbandian only got into this elite season-ending tournament because Nadal, Hewitt, Roddick, Safin all pulled out before the tournament began. Federer was on crutches as recently as three weeks ago after he injured his ankle in practice soon after winning his 11th title of the year in Thailand. Federer can take solace that even injured he was within two points of winning and that he came back from 0-4 down in the final set to serve for the match at 6-5. Nalbandian can take credit for stopping Federer's consecutive match win streak at 35 and his even more remarkable consecutive final win streak at 24.
Despite his loss, Federer's grip on the #1 spot is not in doubt since he won two slams this year and the next slam is the 2006 Australian Open where Federer can gain points by getting to the final.
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