Tennis Atp

LONDON (AP) -- Roger Federer has reclaimed his spot at the top of the tennis world, securing the year-end No. 1 ranking for the fifth time.

The record 15-time Grand Slam champion is closing in on Pete Sampras' all-time mark of six.

"It means a lot to have returned to No. 1 and to finish the year again at No. 1," Federer said Wednesday after accepting a trophy on court at the ATP World Tour Finals. "It was an incredible year for me both on the court and off the court and to be able to break the all-time Grand Slam record and finish the year on top is amazing."

LONDON (AP) -- Roger Federer overcame an erratic forehand and Fernando Verdasco on Sunday, rallying to beat his Spanish opponent 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 in the round-robin stage of the ATP World Tour Finals.

The top-ranked Federer was broken only once -- in the opening game of the Group A match after double-faulting on the first point -- but he never looked dominating until late in the second set when he converted his first break point to even the score at one set apiece.

In the third set at the O2 Arena, Federer was back to his old self. He controlled play as usual, and gave Verdasco little chance to stay in the match.

"I was down a set, and only the second set was I able to sort of get the ball into play, find my range, find my rhythm," Federer said. "This is also when I started to feel like I had chances.

LONDON (AP) -- The ATP Tour will not reopen a doping case against Andre Agassi even though he admitted to lying about using crystal meth in 1997.

Agassi revealed in his recent autobiography that he failed a 1997 drug test, a result he says was thrown out after he lied by claiming he "unwittingly" took crystal meth.

However, ATP chairman Adam Helfant said on Friday that there was no way to sanction the American retroactively since he has retired from tennis.

BRUSSELS (AP) -- Suspended Belgian tennis players Yanina Wickmayer and Xavier Malisse are launching appeals with European authorities challenging the legality of the whereabouts rules of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Victory at the European Commission in Brussels and the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights could force WADA to change its rules on when and where athletes can be tested out of competition.

"The indispensable fight against doping is not the issue here. The problem is the lack of proportionality of certain measures," their lawyer Jean-Louis Dupont told The Associated Press on Sunday.

The athletes are already appealing their one-year bans before the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport.

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PARIS (AP) -- Third-seeded Novak Djokovic scrambled to a 6-2, 5-7, 7-6 (3) victory over local favorite Gael Monfils on Sunday to win the Paris Masters for the first time.

The victory gave Djokovic back-to-back ATP Tour titles after his win over top-ranked Roger Federer in the Swiss Indoors final last Sunday.

The third-ranked Djokovic also beat World No. 2 Rafael Nadal in the semifinals in Paris and will be a strong favorite when he'll try to defend his title at the eight-man ATP World Tour Finals from Nov. 22-29 in London.

PARIS (AP) -- Novak Djokovic overpowered Rafael Nadal 6-2, 6-3 Saturday to reach the Paris Masters final for the first time.

The Serb will face Gael Monfils of France on Sunday. He advanced to the final with a 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 win over Radek Stepanek.

Djokovic is 3-0 overall against Monfils.

"He is one of the players who is very unpredictable," Djokovic said. "He can play really, really fast. And with a big serve, he can do a lot of damage to opponents."

PARIS (AP) -- Known for furious, racket-throwing rants, Marat Safin would rather be remembered for the hard work he put in during a 12-year career marked by two Grand Slam titles and a Davis Cup win.

The former No. 1 ended his career Wednesday after losing to Juan Martin del Potro 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 in the second round of the Paris Masters.

"A lot of people there really thought that I'm not a really hard worker," Safin said. "But you can ask all my coaches how I dedicated myself to tennis. They will tell you it's completely the opposite of what a lot of people think."

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A reflective Andre Agassi gave his first TV interview on CBS' 60 Minutes since the shocking excerpts from his autobiography were released to the public less than two weeks ago.

Katie Couric pressed Agassi on many of the revelations from his book, including the pressure he felt from his father, his secret sentiments toward the sport that made him famous and the admission that he frequently used crystal meth with his trainer in 1997.

"I have to call it like it is," Agassi said when asked about the motivations behind revealing his past. "And hating tennis was a deep part of my life for a long, long time."

Agassi was visibly emotional -- saying he was scared, isolated and "living a fraud" during his years in the tennis spotlight.

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The head of the World Anti-Doping Agency acknowledged that it's too late to punish Andre Agassi for his failed drug test from 1997, darned statute of limitations. But WADA said it still wants some punishment, anyway. Maybe for Agassi's lies to doping officials, which he admits in his book? Maybe for perjury?

Doubtful. But I knew tennis would get its pound of flesh, anyway, as Agassi has embarrassed the sport's governing bodies. What I didn't know was how fast they would get that flesh.

Or that they would take it from Yanina Wickmayer.

She was banned Thursday for a year for a doping offense. It wasn't for failing a test, or apparently even for missing one, though details still aren't out. It was because she failed to report three times to doping officials over the past 18 months where she would be.

You're being handled, played, manipulated. I am, too.

Where is Andre Agassi? Why hasn't he come out in the past 72 hours to tell us that drugs weren't the greatest thing to happen to him, no matter what his book excerpts seem to say? Why has this man who has done so many great things with his school for disadvantaged kids, let the message just hang out there?

Drugs fun. Hate tennis. Bad relationship with Dad.

If he wanted to clear his soul, to confess to his sins, then why did he need be paid $5 million to do it.