“It was one of the worst starts I’ve had in years”, he said.
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Japan’s Kei Nishikori wipes his chin after losing a point to the Czech Republic’s Tomas Berdych during their ATP World Tour Finals tennis match at the O2 Arena in London, Tuesday November 17, 2015.
“My team plays a big part in this – I have a great team of experts and most of all they are my friends and people I can rely on”.
Roger Federer brought his top game to the O2 Arena on Tuesday, stopping Novak Djokovic’s ATP Finals winning streak at 15 by beating the top-seeded Serb 7-5, 6-2.
Indoors the world number one has not been beaten for three years and he is bidding to become the first player ever to win the title four years in a row.
Federer began the second set in much better fashion as he broke straight away by moving Berdych off the baseline and putting away the short replies from Berdych.
Djokovic subjected world No. 8 Nishikori, in his second appearance at the prestigious season-ender, to an array of heavy-duty groundstrokes, cruel lobs and flying aces as he chalked up his 38th successive win on an indoor hard court dating back to October 2012. Everything was fine. I was playing a very good second set and I was playing well in the third.
Djokovic beat Nishikori in his first match, and will face Berdych on Thursday for a spot in the semifinals.
Earlier, the sole Australian in either draw, doubles specialist John Peers, teamed with Britain’s Jamie Murray to beat Italians Fabio Fognini and Simone Bolelli 7-6 (7-5), 3-6, 11-9.
A tight deciding set then stayed on serve until Nishikori got the decisive break for 5-3 and closed it out.
“That was a really big point”. He had three, four shots that he went really aggressive. “Those are the kind of trophies and milestones that mean the most to me”, he said. “Was a little bit lucky I made that shot”.
“But it was important to focus on Berdych and nothing else and now that the match is over I’m relieved, happy”.
Djokovic said: “I’ve had for an opponent one of the quickest tennis players, somebody that possesses a lot of talent and loves to play aggressively, but I didn’t allow him to dictate the play”. Definitely it’s going to be a different match than today.
Djokovic was always forcing Nishikori to go for broke in the first set and it duly paid off as Djokovic’s attack and defence was too much for the Japanese player in the opening set.
Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer stamped their authority on the tournament with straightforward victories in the singles on Sunday.
Despite still being in the middle of the round robin stage, the knock-out stage came a day early for both Berdych and Nishikori after their straight sets losses in their opening matches.
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A large number of travelling Swiss swelled the capacity evening crowd as their man found his form to rack up his 49th win in 60 matches and 14 trips to the season finale.
