Roger Federer soars past No. 1 Rafael Nadal 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 to win his fifth ATP Tour World Final.  In registering only his second win over his rival in their past eight matches, 16-times Grand Slam champion Federer won 37 of his 40 first serve points and converted all three of his break point opportunities. Federer ran his career record to Nadal to 8-14.

“I always believed in a plan from start to finish,” said Federer. “Like at the first match I came out and played against [David] Ferrer, I think I always stayed true to how I wanted to play. It was the same thing today. Even though I lost the second set, I’m really happy the way I stayed positive throughout the match today. I thought it was clearly a very high level. I don’t know if I could have played any better. It was interesting the way he played. But I stayed offensive. I knew in the long run that could be vital, which it was at the end, so I’m very happy.”

Despite needing three hours and 11 minutes to dispatch Andy Murray in the semis on Saturday, Nadal refused to blame his performance on exhaustion.

“I’m not gonna say I lost the match because I was tired,” Nadal said. “What I’m gonna say and what I feel is I lost the match because I played against a very good Roger Federer on one of his favorite surfaces,” Nadal said. “When he’s playing like this, it’s very difficult to stop him. I had chances, but not enough.”

In their last match as a team, Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic win the ATP World Finals with a 7-6 (6), 6-4 victory over Mahesh Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi. It was the seventh title of the year for the duo, which also won Roland Garros.

Nestor will team with Mirnyi next year and Zimonjic will pair with Michael Llodra. Bhupathi will team with his former partner, Leander Paes.

Tomas Berdych said that he voted for Rafael Nadal over Roger Federer for the ATP Sportsman of the Year award due to what he thought were the Swiss’ negative comments about his upset of Federer at Wimbledon.
 
“I was trying to just decide between two names, him and Roger,” he said. “I just decide to go for Rafa. I think he really deserves it. Just was a little bit disappointing after what I read in London, when I play against Roger and beat him. He was a little bit complaining about how he was injured and stuff like that. It was just kind of surprise for me. So maybe that was just the reason I vote for Rafa.”

After losing all three of his matches at the ATP Finals, Andy Roddick, who has been plagued by minor injuries this year,  says he needs to get healthy and in shape before he picks up his rackets again.


“I managed to come out with an okay year in my eyes,” said Roddick, who only won one significant title this year in Miami. “But as far as leaving here with soaring confidence, feeling great about the way I played, probably not. I mean, I played well against Rafa.  I played well enough to win that match. The other two were pretty crappy.”

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett, 80, will play in the Rock-n-Rackets exhibition on Friday in Omaha, Nebraska, along with Andy Roddick, Pete Sampras and the Bryan brothers.

Roddick and buffet are both natives of Omaha.   “Wow, Warren Buffett!” Roddick said in a press release. “I have played against the world’s best stars, and playing with Mr. Buffett certainly stacks up with them all.”

Richard Berankis, 20, won his second title of 2010 by defeating beating  Michal Przysiezny, 6-1, 2-0, ret., in the final of the IPP Open in Helsinki.  The victory will move the Lithuanian’s ranking into the top 100 for the first time and will also make the former junior No. 1 the youngest player in the top 100. 

LONDON (AP)—Roger Federer turned his high-profile, season-ending match against Rafael Nadal into little more than an exhbition.

Federer gave his rival little chance to mount a challenge in the 22nd meeting between two of the greatest players of all time, winning his fifth season-ending title 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 at the ATP World Tour Finals on Sunday.

Federer won an incredible 92 percent of the points played on his first serve in the final, and lost only 13 points on serve in the entire match.

“I was able to stay offensive. Rallies were never that long,” said Federer, who has won the season-ending tournament in Houston, Shanghai and London. “That kind of maybe frustrated him.”

Nadal, the top-ranked Spaniard who won the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open this year, was able to break Federer once in the second set, but he appeared to tire as the match wore on. On Saturday, Nadal spent more then three hours and three sets beating Andy Murray to reach the final of the tournament for the first time in his career.

“I know I didn’t spoil his vacation after this because he’s had an amazing year,” Federer said. “A year that any player dreams of.”

The win cut Nadal’s career record to 14-8 against the second-ranked Swiss player. In Grand Slam finals, Nadal is 5-2 against Federer, but Federer has now beaten Nadal all three times they have faced each other in the final tournament of the season.

In the first set Sunday at the O2 Arena, Federer lost only three points on his serve, and broke Nadal once. He then lost five points on serve in both the second and third sets, but four of them came in one game, giving Nadal his only break of the match.

“I don’t want to say I gave it to him, but obviously Rafa is good enough off second serves he’s going to win at least 50 percent off them usually, unless you’re on a roll and he doesn’t kind of figure out your second serve,” Federer said. “But at that point, he was into the match. He knew the importance of it. He was able to find a way to break me in that game.”

The decisive shift came early in the third set on Nadal’s serve with the Spaniard trailing 2-1. He took a 40-15 lead when Federer sent a return long, but Federer then reeled off the next four points—the last when Nadal sent a forehand wide—to earn the break and essentially end Nadal’s chances of winning.

On match point, Federer hit a forehand winner on the line, but the crowd apparently thought the ball was out as they sat quietly in the arena. Then Nadal started coming to the net to shake hands with Federer, who raised his arms in victory to set off a standing ovation.

Federer has won a record 16 Grand Slam titles, the last coming at this year’s Australian Open, and he and Nadal have combined to win 21 of the past 23 majors.

“Everybody saw the match of yesterday, so everybody’s free to think his own opinion,” Nadal said. “I’m not going to say I lost the match because I was tired. What I’m going to say and what I feel is I lost the match because I played against a very good Roger Federer in one of his favorite surfaces. And when he’s playing like this, it’s very difficult to stop him, no?”

After ending his semifinal streak at major championships at Roland Garros and then faltering at the last two Grand Slam tournaments, Federer has played some of his best tennis of the year this week in London.

He won all three of his round-robin matches in straight sets, and then swept Novak Djokovic on Saturday to reach the final.

“You played unbelievable all during the week,” Nadal said to Federer on court after the match. “So well done for everything.”

In their last match as a team, Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic win the ATP World Finals with a 7-6 (6), 6-4 victory over Mahesh Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi. It was the seventh title of the year for the duo, which also won Roland Garros.

Nestor will team with Mirnyi next year and Zimonjic will pair with Michael Llodra. Bhupathi will team with his former partner, Leander Paes.

Tomas Berdych said that he voted for Rafael Nadal over Roger Federer for the ATP Sportsman of the Year award due to what he thought were the Swiss’ negative comments about his upset of Federer at Wimbledon.
 
“I was trying to just decide between two names, him and Roger,” he said. “I just decide to go for Rafa. I think he really deserves it. Just was a little bit disappointing after what I read in London, when I play against Roger and beat him. He was a little bit complaining about how he was injured and stuff like that. It was just kind of surprise for me. So maybe that was just the reason I vote for Rafa.”

Roger Federer‘s decisive 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 victory over Rafael Nadal in the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals will inevitably be accompanied by a rash of "Roger’s back!" stories. They’ll point to Federer’s 17-2 record after the US Open, his destruction of Novak Djokovic in Basel and London and, of course, the win over his archrival in London, a match in which Federer played some of his best tennis in years and unleashed a wicked topspin backhand that will surely become part of his repertoire next season.

But is Roger really back? Or was he never too far gone to begin with?

In winning his fifth WTF final, Federer denied Nadal his first. The world No. 1 made his way to the finals after a marathon victory over Andy Murray on Saturday, and his fatigue was evident as this match made its way into the third set. For Nadal, it was a disappointing finish to his best season as a professional, but was a vast improvement over his performance in last year’s year-end championships, where he was ousted after the round-robin and failed to win a single set.

As the players head into the short offseason, Federer looks poised to make another run at the No. 1 ranking and to extend his lead over Nadal in Grand Slams. Since working with Paul Annacone, Federer has subtletly tweaked his game by shortening points and playing a more offensive game. It’s paid off.

But Federer’s recent resurgance didn’t come out of nowhere. When everyone said Federer was falling off, that only meant he wasn’t keeping up the historic run of tennis he had from 2004 to 2008. This year was thought of a disappointment. He fell to No. 3 for a time, he didn’t win a tournament from February until August, he lost to guys like Albert Montanes and Ernest Gulbis. Yet Federer won a Grand Slam, earned five titles and played more matches after the US Open than he has in years. Sure, it was an off-year, but only when compared with the unprecedented heyday Federer had in his prime.

A win over Nadal doesn’t mean Federer is back. It means that the rivalry is, once again, on.