Marat Safin of Russia holds the trophy after winning the final of the Paris Masters Series ATP tennis tournament against Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic November 7, 2004. [Reuters]

Marat Safin, back to his very best with a record-equaling third Paris Masters title on Sunday, hopes to be a match for world number one Roger Federer next year.

The Russian, ranked seventh in the world, is the only player apart from Federer to have won back-to-back Masters Series tournaments this season, his Paris success following victory in Madrid last month.

Safin, who has experienced an erratic season, will sign off at next week's Masters Cup in Houston, where he will be able to gauge his form against seven of the game's leading players, including the Swiss number one.

"Nobody really looks forward to playing against Federer, under any circumstances, because the way he's playing right now, this year, is way too good," Safin told reporters.

"He was very solid, very stable, and he just was much better than other players -- much, much better. Even Roddick, although he improved a lot, he couldn't do much against Federer."

Federer won 10 tournaments in 2004, including the Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open grand slam titles. He beat American Roddick in the Wimbledon final.

"Roddick played three, four finals this year, and Federer beat him quite easily," added Safin. "You have to be in really good condition to beat Roger.

"Next year, I will try to do my best and try to compete with him. That will be quite an effort for me.

"But it's quite a challenge to be at the same level as him. If he continues this way, he can be one of the greatest players of all time."

Safin was world number one in 2000, the year he won his only grand slam title at the US Open.  

(Agencies)

erratic: lacking consistency, regularity, or uniformity（不稳定的）

gauge: a means of estimating or evaluating; a test（评估）