Federer falls flat against Nishikori, Anderson off to flyer

LONDON, (Reuters) - Roger Federer was handed the Sunday night prime time slot for the opening match of his 16th ATP Finals but fluffed his lines in an errorstrewn 7-6(4) 6-3 defeat by Kei Nishikori.

After Kevin Anderson had beaten Dominic Thiem in the day’s supporting act, the crowds packed into the O2 Arena and settled in for another Federer masterclass.

What they got instead were 34 unforced errors flying off the Swiss great’s frame as his timing fell apart, and the sight of a tetchy Federer falling out with the umpire.

Having dug in early on to stay with Federer, Nishikori ended up running away with the match to inflict a first straight sets defeat in the ATP Finals round-robin stages on the 20-time Grand Slam champion.

To sum up Federer’s night, he received a warning from umpire Damian Steiner in the 12th game of the opening set when he bashed a ball into the crowd.

“He thought I was angry. I wasn’t. Now I’m angry because I lost,” Federer, who will face Thiem on Tuesday in a match he will need to win to revive his hopes of reaching the semi-finals of the event for a 15th time.

Thiem was outplayed by South African debutant Anderson in the first set of the opening match in Lleyton Hewitt group.

The Austrian made a match of it in the second set and was involved in a gripping tiebreak but went down 6-3 7-6(10).

Federer was far from his best but still looked to have Nishikori where he wanted him during the early exchanges in a match dubbed the “Uniqlo derby” after his recent switch to the same Japanese clothing supplier as his opponent.

It looked bleak for Nishikori when he served at 5-6 and fell behind 0-30 with a woeful volley but he wriggled out of trouble with the aid of one improvised backhand bunt that caught Federer on his heels and resulted in the Swiss hitting the ball high into the stands more in frustration than anger.

While he played down the subsequent warning afterwards, Federer was not himself in the tiebreak, going down 6-1 with a flurry of errors before clawing back to 6-4.

A netted forehand offered Nishikori the opener though.