Bopanna, Mergea lose, end second in group
LONDON: Already through to semifinals, Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea finished second in Ashe/Smith Group after suffering a defeat against the Italian pair of Fabio Fognini and Simone Bolleli in their last group match, here on Thursday.
The eighth-seeded Indo-Romanian pair made a strong comeback after losing the first set but eventually lost 4-6 6-1 5-10 to the fifth seeds in the ATP Tour Finals.
They trailed 0-3 in the Super Tie breaker and that cushion stayed with the Italians, who closed the match comfortably in their favour to record their third win a row. Fognini and Bolleli finished as the group toppers.
Ironically, Bopanna and Mergea won 56 points, six more than their rivals yet ended up on the losing side.
FEDERER STRETCHED Roger Federer knocked Japan’s Kei Nishikori out of the yearneder and guaranteed top spot in his group with a 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 victory.
Federer had already clinched a record 13th Tour Finals semi-final place after ending Novak Djokovic’s threemonth, 23-match winning run on Tuesday.
But the 34-year-old still need- ed to beat Nishikori to be certain of advancing as the group winner and he finished the job in two hours and 10 minutes of gruelling action to secure his third successive victory at the prestigious season-ending event at London’s O2 Arena.
Federer, who has won the Tour Finals a record six times, will face either Andy Murray or Stan Wawrinka in the last four on Saturday.
Murray and Wawrinka clash on Friday to determine the second qualifier from the other group, which has already been won by Rafael Nadal.
Nishikori’s last meeting with Federer had also been at the Tour Finals 12 months ago and ended in a heavy defeat for the Japanese star. This time the 25-year-old put up much more of a fight, but once again he was denied a third career win over the player he grew up idolising. FERRER OUT Swiss star Stanislas Wawrinka cruised to a 7-5, 6-2 victory over Spaniard David Ferrer, who was eliminated after the loss.
The 33-year-old Ferrer, a finalist in this elite, eightman event in 2007, came out strong in the beginning of the contest on Wednesday night, while Wawrinka exhibited the same listlessness he showed in a straight-set loss to Spain’s Rafael Nadal on Monday.