Federer tops season-ending rankings a fourth straight year

Hamburg (dpa) - Roger Federer of Switzerland topped the season- ending men's tennis rankings issued on Monday the fourth straight year, with Rafael Nadal a familiar second and Novak Djokovic a new third.

Federer has 7,180 points to dominate the Spaniard Nadal (5,735) and Serbia's Djokovic (4,470 points). Djokovic was 16th at the end of 2006.

Federer won three of the year's Grand Slams: Australian and US Open as well as Wimbledon. He lost the French Open final to Nadal. Federer also won the season-ending Masters Cup in Sunday, his eighth title of the year.

The Swiss has ruled the year-ending rankings since 2004. Only Pete Sampras (1993-1998), John McEnroe (1981-1984) and Jimmy Connors (1974-1978) have managed in the past to dominate the rankings four (or more) years in succession.

ATP top 10 as of November 19 (previous ranking in parenthesis):

1. (1) Roger Federer, Switzerland, 7,180 points

2. (2) Rafael Nadal, Spain, 5,735

3. (3) Novak Djokovic, Serbia, 4,470

4. (4) Nikolay Davydenko, Russia, 2,825

5. (6) David Ferrer, Spain, 2,750

6. (5) Andy Roddick, United States, 2,530

7. (7) Fernando Gonzalez, Chile, 2,005

8. (8) Richard Gasquet, France, 1,930

9. (9) David Nalbandian, Argentina, 1,775

10. (10) Tommy Robredo, Spain, 1,765.