Federer overcomes Anderson, in semis
LONDON: I played good tennis and I’m thrilled, excited to be in semis. These roundrobin formats are not straightforward. Normally, you lose, you leave.
ROGER FEDERER, World No 3
A few days after it appeared as though a Roger Federer impersonator had gatecrashed the 02 Arena, the Swiss great resumed normal service to outplay Kevin Anderson and reach the last four of the ATP Finals on Thursday.
Federer walked out into a jampacked O2 Arena knowing any repeat of his insipid performance on Sunday against Japan’s Kei Nishikori could have resulted in an ignominious early exit.
But the 37-year-old again shrugged off the passing of time to swagger past the dangerous Anderson 6-4, 6-3 and reach the semi-finals for the 15th time in 16 appearances at the event.
Record six-time champion Federer turned on the style to avenge this year’s gut-wrenching Wimbledon quarter-final defeat by Anderson in which he squandered a match point.
Federer and Anderson both ended up with two wins in the Lleyton Hewitt group but the Swiss grabbed first place on the head-to-head record — meaning he is likely to avoid World no 1 Novak Djokovic in Saturday’s last four. Djokovic will top the other group unless he loses to Marin Cilic and John Isner beats Alexander Zverev.
A tournament that has so far lacked thrills could yet have a Sunday showdown between old warriors Federer and Djokovic.
Earlier on Thursday, Dominic Thiem beat Nishikori 6-1, 6-4 — a result that meant the Austrian would reach the semi-finals if Federer lost to Anderson and won fewer than six games.
Thiem admitted he was not holding his breath and from the moment Federer took the first set it was just a case of whether the second seed or Anderson would top the group.
HAPPY FEDERER
“Very happy, the first match against Kei was tough, I never got going,” Federer, who rebounded from an ugly performance against Nishikori to beat Thiem in his second round-robin match in the Lleyton Hewitt group, said on court.
“With my back against the wall maybe it’s easier for me to play. I played some good tennis and I’m thrilled, excited to be in the semis.”
“These round-robin formats are not straightforward,” he added. “Normally, you lose, you leave. I think it was also difficult for Kevin because he knew he had already qualified.”
Federer is showing few signs of wear as he marches on towards his 100th career title. “I’m happy that this is another week like this. Didn’t look like it maybe 72 hours ago. But I was able to come back and play good tennis.”