The world's top male tennis player, Roger Federer, says the depth of the current men's tennis circuit is largely underestimated because he and world No 2 Spaniard Rafael Nadal have been winning every Grand Slam recently.

But Federer, who found himself back in the hunt for the Masters Cup title with a straight-set victory over Russia's Nikolay Davydenko yesterday, noted the significant splash made by a new generation of youngsters this year, saying it may be overshadowed by the fact that he and Nadal have won the last 11 Grand Slam titles.

"I really said this could be the year of youngsters coming up, the ones you also are thinking about: Berdych and Gasquet and Murray and Djokovic and all these guys," Federer said.

"They've definitely taken a step forward. They still haven't been able to win Grand Slams, but they are winning titles more regularly, whereas they were waiting in the wings a couple of years ago."

Federer looks more vulnerable than he has in recent memory, suffering his ninth loss of the season here on Monday in his opening match against Fernando Gonzalez. It was his worst record since 2004 but still a remarkable season as he only lost to six players all year.

"That's probably not going to happen again," Federer said. "Sometimes you have these incredible seasons where you just go on winning streaks, but that doesn't mean anything about how the game is being played."

This year the Swiss lost to three players twice: Nadal and a pair Argentines, Guillermo Canas and David Nalbandian. Italian Filippo Volandri, Serb world No 3 Novak Djokovic and the Chilean Gonzalez were the other three who were able to knock off the reigning world No 1.

He said the challenge from youngsters in the group were the most dangerous.

"It's not easy to play against these guys, you know, because they hit hard, flat, off the baseline, return well. Everybody cracks the 200 without a problem. Everybody's got a decent second serve today. I think that makes it so much tougher to beat all these guys all the time.

"There's always been these great players, in any generation. This year the youngsters got a bit more of a piece of the cake. But still the Grand Slams stayed with Rafa and myself."

Federer said he was just happy to get through the year and was able to finish ranked No 1 for the fourth consecutive year. On Tuesday, he was awarded the 2007 ATP Race Trophy here at Qi Zhong Tennis Center.

"This year obviously is very special coming back in the race, especially all the way through to the US Open. I had to battle hard.

"It took me really enormous wins, such as three Slams, to actually maintain my No 1 position. Obviously it's a great achievement for me and I am looking forward to 2008."

For Davydenko, yesterday's loss was his 11th straight to the Swiss and, like last year, practically eliminates him from the $4.5-million tournament in the group phase.

He did make a few notable plays in both sets by breaking Federer each time in the ninth game of the first set and in the seventh game of the second. But it was not enough for an upset, although Federer committed 39 unforced errors, 17 more than the Russian.

"Still I am happy to be on the tour. I don't want to die now after losing to Federer again.

"He is 26 going on 27. I think he is more tired for next year," Davydenko teased. "I am waiting and everybody is waiting."

Roddick advances

In another Red Group match, Andy Roddick, seemingly inspired by a 1:00 AM phone call to coach Jimmy Connors on Tuesday, defeated Gonzalez 6-1, 6-4 to qualify for the semifinals.

Connors is not with Roddick in Shanghai, but the American said Connors had seen his games live on TV and had offered him praise.

"He was happy with what he saw," Roddick said. "He was happy with the way I was playing pretty aggressively.

Roddick will next play Federer who leads him 14-1 in career meetings including a 10-match winning streak.

"I can just go for my shots and try to knock him out. I am sure I will have about seven other guys cheering for me to do that," he said.

(China Daily November 15, 2007)