Swiss Roger Federer receives his ATP World No 1 trophy by ranking during the 2007 Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai in Shanghai, China, yesterday.--Xinhua

Switzerland's Roger Federer was handed the year's top tennis player trophy for the fourth consecutive time at a dazzling ceremony yesterday.

The 26-year-old star, dressed in a pale grey jacket and navy shirt, received the ATP Race award in front of thousands of fans at Shanghai's Qi Zhong Tennis Stadium, the venue of the ongoing Masters Cup championships.

"This is already the fourth consecutive year I've received this trophy, and that is what I expected to defend at the beginning of this year," Federer told the crowd.

"It's an amazing run I'm on. Obviously I hope I can maintain itnext season. I'll try my best."

Federer has ranked No. 1 every week since first taking over on Feb. 2, 2004, and has ranked No. 1 for 198 weeks as of Nov. 12 and broke record of Connors (160) for most consecutive weeks at No. 1 this season.

The Swiss mogul also added another three Grand Slams, taking his total to 12, among seven titles this year.

However, Federer was upset by Chilean Fernando Gonzalez in his opening match on Monday at the Masters Cup and needs to win the last two round-robin matches against Nikolay Davydenko and Andy Roddick to stay in his defending campaign.