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Shanghai keeps Masters until 2008
 Federer serves to Nalbandian in the 2005 Masters final in Shanghai BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- The Masters Cup, the lucrative year-end finale to the men's tennis tour, will stay in Shanghai until at least 2008, organizers said on Tuesday. A raft of withdrawals from last year's event, the first of what had been a three-year deal to host the tournament in the booming eastern Chinese city, has not dissuaded organizers from wanting to host it in 2008, China's Olympic year. Shanghai will join New York, Frankfurt and Hannover in hosting one of the versions of the championship four times or more. "It's known to all that the 2008 Olympic Games will be held in Beijing," Qiu Weichang, the deputy director of the Shanghai Administration of Sports, said in a statement. "We hope the Tennis Masters Cup can add to the prestige of the 'Sports Year' and we are fully confident that the Masters Cup in 2008 will be more successful than ever." The tournament, which has a history going back to 1970 under various guises, was devised pitting the top eight players in the world against each other. Shanghai hosted the event in 2002 at the International Expo center when Australian Lleyton Hewiit won, but there was disappointment when top name withdrawals seriously weakened the field for its return last November. Hewiit, Andy Roddick and Marat Safin all turned down the chance to play at the purpose-built Qi Zhong Tennis Centre because of injury or personal commitments, while Rafael Nadal and Andre Agassi pulled out after the start. Argentine David Nalbandian beat an injury hampered Roger Federer to break the world number one's two-year dominance of the tournament. "It is very good news for tennis, and particularly for tennis in China, that the Tennis Masters Cup will remain in Shanghai," International Tennis Federation President Francesco Ricci Bitti said in a statement released by organizers. "There will be many milestones for tennis in China over the next few years with the Olympic tennis event in Beijing and three more outstanding editions of the tournament season-ending championships in Shanghai." 
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