Meanwhile, world number two Federer will meet either Stanislas Wawrinka or Andy Murray in the semifinals after beating Kei Nishikori 7-5, 4-6, 6-4.
Advertisement
The fourth seeds had let a 5-2 lead slip before edging the first set, and were hauled back from 5-3 up in the second set tie-break.
Novak Djokovic qualified for the semifinals in London with a straight-sets win over Tomas Berdych.
He has beaten the Czech five times in the last six years at the ATP finals.
This year after five days of competition there have again only been two three-set matches, and the trend has been for a competitive first set to be followed by a whitewash in the second, such as Murray’s 6-4 6-1 loss to Nadal.
Again Federer got to 4-1 but again Nishikori fought back, showing why he is tipped as the man most likely to take over the mantle once the “big four” finally fade.
Federer has drawn attention not just for his tennis this week – this is the 13th time in 14 appearances he has reached the last four – but also his growing beard. Despite that break, the Japanese struck back as Nishikori used his favorite backhand to overpower Federer in backhand-to-backhand rallies with the 17-time Grand Slam champion dumping one into the net to give the break back.
“He has another match tomorrow and I will watch that with my team to try and prepare”, Djokovic said after his win.
The trend for singles matches this week has been for a competitive first set to be followed by a whitewash of a second, but Nishikori took the attack to Federer to retrieve the break and then benefited from his opponent’s lapse in concentration. “If my girls can’t stand it, I’ll take it off. If I look in the mirror and I don’t like it, I’ll take it off. Or maybe I’ll think of Santa and keep it. It [Christmas] is around the corner”.
“There’s points on the line and prestige, wanting to beat Kei, winning at the O2”, he said. This is where I wanted to be. He would take the set 6-4 after Federer’s attempt at a drop shot found the net.
Advertisement
Federer finished the group stage 3-0 while Nishikori was eliminated with a 1-2 record. Djokovic has won 20 of his previous 22 matches against Berdych, and had little trouble with winning another one, 6-3, 7-5.
