He must beat Djokovic in his final group match on Thursday to have any chance of making the last four.
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It was the most eagerly-awaited match of the group stages at London’s O2 Arena and the capacity crowd of mostly Federer fans went home very happy after watching the Swiss upset the world No. 1 7-5 6-2.
This was Djokovic’s first loss at the ATP Finals since 2011, and his scarcely believable 38-match winning streak indoors was finally brought to an end. His response? He played one of the most handsome matches of his rather attractive career when he served Andy Murray out of Wimbledon in their semi-final and his excellence continued into the hard-court season, when he briefly messed with Novak Djokovic’s head by changing his returning position in their final in Cincinnati.
Djokovic beat Nishikori in his first match, and will face Berdych for a spot in the semifinals. We can just play our game, and then the better man wins. “Could help me for what’s to come in this tournament”, Federer said.
“I don’t think it was a tactical approach”, he said. “But, to me Novak is still the favourite”.
“Then he should make his way to the semis somehow”.
“He’s far from gone”.
“The way I know Novak, he’s going to find a way to be tougher to beat from now on”.
All told one of tennis’ greatest rivalries sits at 21-21, though Djokovic has taken four of the last six meetings, including the U.S Open final in four sets 6-4 5-7 6-4 6-4.
Federer earned himself a match point with a tremendous backhand that had supporters punching the air.
However, Djokovic prevailed at the end of a 26-shot rally for deuce.
In what was a hugely anticipated match between Djokovic and Federer it was the Swiss player who began the match by using his serve to get out of danger, and with it he had his first game of the board.
Federer routed Djokovic in a 77-minute match on Tuesday, prompting Djokovic to give what appeared to be an honest assessment of the beatdown. “These kind of things happen”.
“Yeah, you have those days as well, when you are not feeling your best, not even close to the best, ” Djokovic said. I made a lot of, lot of unforced errors.
Federer broke Djokovic in the final game of the first set, and again early in the second.
“Once the match went on, I felt like, I’m with him, I’m serving well, could play better from the baseline maybe at times, but he was doing a good job there”. I’ll take a note.
He will play Tomas Berdych on Thursday for a slim chance of barging into the top four.
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Two forehand errors from the Berdych racket allowed Nishikori to move 5-3 ahead and the Japanese player secured victory with a love hold. “It’s always a thrill to come out here in the O2 Arena, also against a great player like Novak”, said Federer on court.
