Federer humbled by Nishikori
Swiss ace falls to Japanese in straight sets, now has to beat Thiem to stay in contention
LONDON: 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 error-strewn 7-6(4), 6-3 defeat by Kei Nishikori.
While the crowd packed into the O2 Arena had settled in for a 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.
‘WASN’T ANGRY, BUT NOW I AM AFTER LOSING’
“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.
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. Nishikori double-faulted to hand Federer the first break of the match at the start of the second set but Federer gifted back the advantage in the next game when he again had words with the chair umpire after taking too long to challenge a call.
Federer lacked his usual panache and dropped serve again to trail 4-2 and Nishikori calmly held at 5-3 for victory — his first over Federer since 2014.
ZVEREV OVERCOMES CILIC IN OPENER
Marin Cilic’s miserable record at the ATP Finals continued as he was beaten 7-6(5), 7-6(1) by Germany’s Alexander Zverev on Monday marking his ninth defeat in 10 round-robin matches at the O2 Arena.
Almost a year to the day since Zverev marked his debut in the season-ending showpiece by toppling the big-serving Croat, the 21-year-old Zverev again prevailed in a scrappy contest to take his career record over Cilic to 6-1.
It was the world No 5 Zverev’s 55th match victory of the year — more than any other player on the Tour.