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No. 1 Djokovic stretches ATP finals winning streak to 15

Czech Republic’s Tomas Berdych plays a return to Japan’s Kei Nishikori during their ATP World Tour Finals tennis match at the O2 Arena in London, Tuesday November 17, 2015.

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The pair were tied at 21 victories apiece and a win for Djokovic, who is bidding for a fourth straight title, would have taken him ahead for the first time.

After one-sided defeats to Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic respectively, Berdych and Nishikori must bounce back swiftly on Tuesday – but only one can keep their hopes of reaching the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals semifinals alive. “The third set was really close”.

With the first set going with serve, Berdych pushed Nishikori to deuce when the Japanese was serving to stay in the set but Asia’s top player clung on to level at 5-5.

It is the start of two huge weeks for Murray, culminating in the Davis Cup final between Great Britain and Belgium in Ghent.

Nishikori, ranked eighth in the world, is making his second appearance at the Tour Finals after marking his maiden entry past year with a run to the last four.

The former Wimbledon finalist’s first serve percentage dropped below 50% but he was able to swat away two break point chances.

“I put myself under too much unnecessary pressure at the beginning, trying to go for too big of a second serve, even though I hadn’t found my rhythm yet”. The former US Open finalist produced the goods at key moments and clinched a 7-5 3-6 6-3 victory. “I served efficiently. I mixed up the second serves as well, didn’t give him really the same look twice”.

Federer said his match against Djokovic tonight “is not the match that I care the most about, to be quite honest” and that “it’s going to be interesting to see how I play that one”.

“I think everybody right now is concerned about things”, said Murray, who beat David Ferrer 6-4, 6-4 in his opening match at the season-ending ATP finals.

Nishikori may have been embarrassed but he is in good company, with Djokovic now having won 23 matches in a row.

“I was feeling very comfortable on the court”.

It is unusual to hear Federer, one of the most confident sportspeople around, talk about not expecting to win, and he said the round-robin format gave him the freedom to be the underdog. Serb is now only player who won Paris Masters 4 times, and after 26th Masters 1000 title Nadal is fully in his sight, as Novak is only title behind Spaniard.

It is a odd situation – although far from unique in doubles – and Murray said: “I didn’t really think about it that much”.

There is a little way to go yet, but their 7-6, 3-6, (11-9) win over Fabio Fognini and Simone Bolelli – the first match of the tournament – set the ball rolling nicely.

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Nadal failed to convert any of the seven break points Wawrinka offered up at the start of the second set and then had to save two himself in the next game, one with a stunning lob.

Novak Djokovic