MADRID, Oct 11: Strengthening his position at the top of the world rankings is the priority for Rafael Nadal rather than November’s Davis Cup final against Argentina, the Spaniard said ahead of Madrid Masters.

The 22-year-old has had a spectacular season, winning a fourth consecutive French Open, gold at the Beijing Olympics and his maiden Wimbledon title to replace arch-rival Roger Federer as the world number one. He is not about to give that up easily.

“My objective is to arrive safely on Wednesday, ready to play a good match. Winning the tournament isn’t the objective but to ensure I am still number one at the end of the year,” Nadal said after a training session on Friday.

He batted away a flurry of questions from local media about the Davis Cup final, saying: “I am playing Madrid now, then Paris, Shanghai and after that you can ask me about Mar del Plata.”

Federer’s cool demolition of Andy Murray in last month’s US Open final added to the feeling that the Swiss world number two has rediscovered his best form, and there is the possibility of a fifth meeting with Nadal this term, in Madrid.Nadal has won all four clashes between the two in 2008.

“It would be great to have another duel with Federer. If I play him it means I will be number one at the end of the year because I will have reached the final. I can only meet him there,” Nadal added.

Nadal, Federer, Serbia’s Novak Djokovic and Britain’s Murray have all guaranteed themselves places in the lucrative Masters Cup in Shanghai on Nov 9-16, leaving four more places up for grabs.

Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko, who was ousted from the Kremlin Cup at the quarter-final stage on Friday, and American Andy Roddick, knocked out of the Japan Open in the semi-finals a week ago, take up fifth and sixth places in the ATP 2008 race. Spaniard David Ferrer, American James Blake, in-form Argentine Juan Martin del Potro and Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka are battling it out for the last two slots.

Defending champion David Nalbandian, ranked seventh in the world, is well off the pace down in 26th in the race for Shanghai, but has recovered from some early season injuries.—Reuters