World number three Roger Federer is playing as well as ever and does not plan to slow down in his advancing years after overcoming fellow Swiss Stan Wawrinka to reach the showpiece of the ATP World Tour Finals.
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Nadal at least avoided being broken in the opening game of the second set but the pressure was relentless and it was no surprise when Djokovic moved ahead 3-2.
In the earlier semifinal, Djokovic beat fifth-seeded Rafael Nadal 6-3, 6-3 in 79 minutes to reach his fourth consecutive final.
Their 46 meetings are the most between any two players during the Open era, with Djokovic tying their head-to-head for the first time at 23-23 after 10 years.
Federer will be buoyed for his 10th final in this event after beating Djokovic in the group stage on Tuesday.
He said: “I think I improved a lot over the last couple of months”. No blows below the waistline.’ Perhaps Nili was not intentionally referring back to past year, but Federer and Wawrinka heeded his advice with no sign of any issues. “I managed to execute the game plan, I was trying to be aggressive, dictate the play”, Djokovic said. The run includes a quarterfinal victory at this year’s French Open, the clay-court major that Nadal has won a record nine times.
Federer’s been playing well this week, but I still like the court and the conditions for Novak here.
The Spaniard had been aggressive in his play in the first three matches, finding depth and penetration with his groundstrokes, but they had little effect on Djokovic.
Referring to the 28-year-old Djokovic, whom the Swiss defeated earlier this week in the tournament’s round-robin phase, Federer joked that the reigning Australian Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open champion “should be knocked out by now”.
While Nadal was pushing his body to the limits, Djokovic was at home relaxing having finished his group campaign on Thursday and unsurprisingly there was noticeably more zip to the Serb’s groundstrokes in the first set.
Djokovic has claimed the last three titles here, with two of those wins coming over Federer (though last year’s win came when Federer withdrew prior to the match, due to a back injury). There is a lot at stake.
But Murray said: “I think the way the format is, nearly every game is important”.
As well as closing his press conference wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and looking forward (!) to seeing us all again, he also found the humour in his loss, saying: “He played just fantastic”.
“Even though it does also happen that you play each other in one place one week, then another place seven days later in a finals, I’m sure we’ve done that as well”. “I know it’s going to be hard tomorrow but I’ll give it all I have”.
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“He was better than me and he deserved to do what he did during the whole season”, said Nadal.
