MADRID , Spain -- David Nalbandian battled back to stun world No . 1 Roger Federer with a 1-6 6-3 6-3 victory in the final of the Madrid Masters on Sunday . David Nalbandian celebrates after upsetting Roger Federer in the Madrid Masters final . The Argentine , ranked 25th in the world , repeated his 2005 upset win over the Swiss star in that year 's season-ending Masters Cup -- also an indoor event . Defending champion Federer , playing in his first tournament since winning the U.S. Open six weeks ago , made 38 unforced errors . Nalbandian became only the third player -- and the second this year after Novak Djokovic in Montreal in August -- to beat the world 's top-three players en route to winning a title . German legend Boris Becker was the first to perform the feat 13 years ago . Nalbandian ousted second-ranked Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals and then Serbian Djokovic in Saturday 's semis . The 25-year-old , who lost in the Madrid final in 2004 , claimed his first triumph on the ATP Tour since May , 2006 , on clay in Portugal . He spent a year without a coach , but has revived his career since teaming up with Hernan Gumy . `` I 'm extremely contented to beat the world number one , '' Nalbandian said . `` Roger and I have a long history and I think that influenced the match . `` It was an extremely hard first set . But I tightened the teeth and I began to play more strongly . Things came out fine , I played incredible , and that of course that helps . '' Federer added : `` He served well , I was quite surprised with how well he served . `` He came back strong and played well in the end . `` He was a better player all in all . I was struggling after the first set to play aggressively , for some reason . He played tough and did n't miss any more . I could n't play way I wanted to . It was a pity , he played a great tournament . '' E-mail to a friend .
David Nalbandian won Madrid Masters after beating top seed Roger Federer . The world number one was the first player to win a title in Spain since Juan Martin del Potro did so at Roland Garros last year. He became third man to beat world 's three top players en route to a title .