Roger Federer's first Wimbledon crown in 2003 may have signalled his arrival as a perennial Grand Slam contender, but the era of his consistent dominance on tour didn't truly get under way until much later in the year at the Tennis Masters Cup.

Federer won only one out of the next eight tournaments he played in after Wimbledon (Vienna), but ended the year on a high note, winning the year-end championships after pummelling Andre Agassi 6-3, 6-0, 6-4 in the TMC finals at Houston.

The win would prove to be the beginning of Pax Federer; from 2004-2007, he has reigned supreme with few blemishes. Boasting an absurd 305-22 record during the last four seasons, it has come as a great surprise whenever Federer loses. There have been some shockers (2004 Miami Masters against a then-relatively unknown Rafael Nadal), and some not-so-shocking (2006 Roland Garros against the undisputed king of clay Nadal).

'Nalbandian became one of the few players to dent the polished armour that was Federer's legendary 2005 season'

But the most surprising of these 22 defeats - and conversely, the most impressive victory by Roger's opponent - came at the halfway point of Pax Federer - the 2005 Tennis Masters Cup. Federer's opponent on that day? You guessed it (or just remembered it) - David Nalbandian.

Nalbandian's performance in the finals of the 2005 Tennis Masters Cup cannot be understated. Consider the following: - Up to this point in the year, Federer had only lost three matches all season, and only one of those defeats was on a hard court (Australian Open vs. Marat Safin).

Federer had already defeated Nalbandian in the round-robin portion of the Tennis Masters Cup, winning 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 earlier in the week. Nalbandian came back from two sets to none down, and did so after losing tiebreakers in both of the first two sets.