Goran Ivanisevic was the latest player to lose to a rampant Marcelo Rios and admitted afterwards that the Chilean is still good enough to threaten the world’s greatest tennis players.

Rios defeated Ivanisevic 7-5, 6-3 in the final of the 3rd Trophee Jean-Luc Lagardere in Paris to maintain his unbeaten record and win his fifth consecutive event on the 2006 Merrill Lynch Tour of Champions.

“If he practiced he could be top ten in the world,” said Ivanisevic.

“He’s one of the most talented players ever – there’s Federer and Nadal who would still be numbers one and two, but if Rios practiced, he would be next.”

After being told of the Croatian’s comments, Rios said:

“I don’t know why Goran is talking about this. I already told him that I’ll come back if he comes back! But I would rather stay unbeaten on this tour.”

Despite losing for the second time to Rios this year, Ivanisevic is confident that he and fellow big server Richard Krajicek can find a way to beat the Chilean when the Merrill Lynch Tour of Champions moves indoors for the first time this year at the Alex Tennis Classics in Eindhoven (October 12-15).

On the slow clay in Paris, the current No.1 player in the South African Airways Champions Tour Rankings was just too strong and consistent.

“I was hitting great serves, forehands at 300 kph, but he was sending them all back. He gave me maybe three free points throughout the whole match. I need to get fitter,” said Ivanisevic.

The Croatian started well, slamming down 10 aces in the first set. The scores were level until 4-all when Rios broke through. Ivanisevic hit back immediately, firing down two forehand winners to level again at 5-all, but some slack groundstrokes and silky baseline play from Rios put the Chilean back in charge, and he served out to take the set 7-5.

The second set was all Rios, as Ivanisevic’s best efforts were frequently returned with interest.

Afterwards, Rios vowed to take on all-comers, even on the faster surfaces in Eindhoven, Frankfurt and London before the end of the year, and said he enjoyed the competetiveness of the Merrill Lynch Tour of Champions.

“I think everybody comes to win and I’ve been having a lot of tough matches, but I’m playing well. I think it’s good that everyone wants to get fitter and better. That’s the nice thing about me joining the Tour – it raises everyone else’s level. Maybe when I’m older, someone younger will come and I’ll have to try even harder to beat them. It makes the Tour better.”

In the 3rd/4th place play-off, Cedric Pioline defeated Thomas Muster 6-3, 7-6(5).

Next, the Merrill Lynch Tour of Champions will visit the Alex Tennis Classics in Eindhoven (October 12-15). It will then journey to the Champions Trophy in Frankfurt (November 16-19) before arriving in London for the season-ending BlackRock Masters (December 5-10).

The BlackRock Masters sees the top ten players in the South African Airways Champions Tour Rankings compete for a $100,000 winners’ prize. The field at the Royal Albert Hall in London will increase to 12 with the addition of two wild card invitations.

To be eligible to compete on the Merrill Lynch Tour of Champions, players must have been either a World No.1 during their competitive playing careers, a Grand Slam singles finalist or champion, or a singles player on a victorious Davis Cup team, and no longer active as an singles player on the ATP circuit. Each event can also invite two players of its choice to take wild cards.

Merrill Lynch is one of the world's leading wealth management, capital markets and advisory companies with offices in 36 countries and territories and total client assets of approximately US$1.8 trillion. As an investment bank, it is a leading global trader and underwriter of securities and derivatives across a broad range of asset classes and serves as a strategic advisor to corporations, governments, institutions, and individuals worldwide. Through Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, the company is one of the world's largest managers of financial assets. Firmwide, assets under management total US$589 billion as at 30th June 2006. For more information on Merrill Lynch, please visit www.ml.com.