Federer beats Djokovic, reaches ATP Finals series

LONDON—Roger Federer showed that memories of this year’s Wimbledon final are well and truly behind him. In the first rematch between Federer and Novak Djokovic since that epic five-set final, the Swiss star dominated from the start to win 6-4, 6-3 Thursday and reach the semifinals of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Finals.

“I played incredible, and I knew I had to,” Federer said. “I was able to produce, it was definitely magical.”

It was Federer’s first win over the Serb since 2015, having lost their last five meetings—including that Wimbledon final in July when Djokovic saved two match points in the fifth set.

“Obviously it’s always special beating Novak, even more so because of what happened [at Wimbledon],” Federer said. ”But I didn’t feel like I had to get rid of the ghosts or anything like that. I feel like I moved on pretty quickly after that.”

This match had little of the same drama as Djokovic gave up three cheap service breaks and Federer gave him no chance to get back in it.

The whole thing lasted just one hour and 13 minutes and ended with Djokovic being broken at love.

“He was the better player in all aspects and absolutely deserved to win,” Djokovic said. “Just a pretty bad match from my side.”

The result means Djokovic was eliminated with a 1-2 record in the group stage, and ensures that Rafael Nadal will keep hold of the yearend No. 1 ranking. Djokovic had a chance to overtake Nadal and equal Pete Sampras’s record of finishing the year as No. 1 for a sixth time by winning the tournament.

“Of course that was a big motivation also for the end of the season,” Djokovic said. “But every time you step on the court, you know there is something on the line.”

In a match between two players with a combined 36 Grand Slam titles and 11 ATP Finals championships, Djokovic was also broken at love in his second service game after double-faulting twice and hitting two shots into the net.