Federer ends 'great season' in Shanghai

World number one Roger Federer hailed 2007 as a "breakthrough year" after defending his Tennis Masters Cup title.

The Swiss star brushed aside Spain's David Ferrer 6-2 6-3 6-2 in the Shanghai final on Sunday for his fourth win at the season-ending showpiece in five years.

"It's been a great season for me," said Federer, who has won all eight of his career meetings with Ferrer. "And finishing off the best players in the world in the Masters Cup, it's always a great experience for me."

Ferrer had dropped only one set on his run to the final in his inaugural appearance in the season-ending eight-man event but he had no answer to Federer, who served nine aces and had a total of 30 winners to the Spaniard's 10.

It capped an impressive turnaround by Federer, who began the tournament with a surprise defeat to Fernando Gonzalez of Chile but emphasised his position as the game's top player by not dropping a set in his remaining matches against Nikolay Davydenko, Andy Roddick, world number two Rafael Nadal and Ferrer.

And it also constituted the eighth tournament win of a year which, ominously for the rest of the tour, the 26-year-old believes could have been his best yet.

"It's been in some ways a breakthrough year for me especially the way I played at the beginning of the year, not losing a set during the Australian Open," added Federer.

"And then coming here, beating everybody in straight sets after losing against Gonzalez when people thought, OK, Federer is maybe not playing so well.

"Beating Nadal for the first time on clay... I've beaten all my closest rivals, Nadal and Djokovic, more times than they've beaten me. It's been one of those years which I'm really, really happy about.

"Maybe I didn't win 10 titles, but it's not necessary to stay number one in the world all the time. If I keep this level of play up, I'm in a great position for next year as well."