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Roger Federer breezes past Kei Nishikori at ATP World Tour Finals Roger Federer breezes past Kei Nishikori at ATP World Tour Finals
(35 minutes later)
Roger Federer made it two wins from two group matches at the ATP World Tour Finals with a comfortable victory over Andy Murray’s conqueror, Kei Nishikori. Roger Federer looks in the mood to win this tournament for the seventh time in 13 visits and perhaps return to No1 in the world in the highly unlikely event of Novak Djokovic slipping up in London over the next few days.
The Japanese player was the only debutant to win his opening match and he was looking to maintain his good record against Federer. Only the Serb and Federer’s compatriot Stanislas Wawrinka, who are in the other group of the ATP World Tour Finals, have shown the sort of form to stop the elegant Swiss who is playing nearly as well at 33 as when he won the last of his 17 majors in 2012 – when he had only one set of twins instead of two.
However, this was a real contest only in the early stages as Federer breezed to a 6-3, 6-2 win to add to his straight sets victory over Milos Raonic on Sunday. Djokovic, who wiped the O2 Arena floor with new US Open champion, Marin Cilic, for the loss of just two games in his first match and plays Wawrinka on Wednesday night, is still the favourite to keep his title, as Federer acknowledges.
Federer will qualify for the semi-finals if Raonic defeats Murray later on Tuesday or Murray wins in three sets, with victory for the Scot now imperative to keep his chances alive. “Novak looks great,” Federer said after beating Kei Nishikori in just an hour and nine minutes on Tuesday, to add to his opening victory over Milos Raonic, who also did not detain him long. “No disrespect to the other players on the other side. I know they’re going to have their chance against Novak, as well – Stan and [Tomas] Berdych. But I’ve played Novak here in previous years, and I know how tough he is to beat here.”
Nishikori admitted the first time he played his idol he had too much respect for him to offer a challenge, but he had won two of their previous three meetings. Federer, who insisted “it was never the goal to win world No1”, nevertheless is in superb form and just seven wins away from 1,000 for his career, 70 of those coming this year, which makes him the oldest player in the ATP’s ranking history to reach that figure. “My focus is rather to try to win the World Tour Finals,” he said, “then play a good [Davis Cup] finals next week. The rankings anyway are going to follow or not.”
The 24-year-old had begun nervously against Murray but this time he looked sharp from the start and things might have been different had he converted one of two break points in the third game. Yet it has become increasingly evident over the past year or so that Federer, who forged his championship pedigree in big five-setters in grand slam tournaments for more than a decade, is now more lethal over the shorter distance, as Nishikori, nine years his junior, discovered.
But Federer saved both and made Nishikori pay by breaking in the next game with two bullet forehands. That seemed to deflate the No4 seed, whose usually reliable backhand began to let him down. There remains the suspicion that, if Federer has to travel beyond three sets, he is vulnerable, as was the case when Djokovic beat him in the Wimbledon final this year. In the sport’s lottery form, however, he hardly raised a sweat accounting for Nishikori, 6-3, 6-2. There was barely time for a decent Mexican wave; in fact, after five sessions, no match had gone the full course, with Monday’s singles both over inside an hour.
It looked like the O2 Arena might witness its fifth consecutive 6-1 set after Monday’s blow-out wins for Stan Wawrinka and Novak Djokovic when Federer had a point for 5-1. This time Nishikori saved the break point but he could make no headway on Federer’s serve and the world No2 easily wrapped up the opening set. “The season’s been long for most of the guys, and maybe some feel it more than others,” Federer said of the obvious leg-weariness in some of the other seven finalists who made it to Greenwich.
Nishikori then took a medical time-out for treatment to his right wrist, and things showed no sign of improving as Federer broke again early in the second set. He plays Andy Murray on Thursday in the concluding match in Group B. It is fair to say Nishikori was a level down from his form in defeating Murray in the tournament’s opener on Sunday, and he paid for not capitalising on brief early nerves by Federer.
The Japanese could not find the right balance between attack and defence and more errors handed Federer a 5-2 lead. He had to save a third break point serving for the match but that proved a minor inconvenience as he wrapped up victory in one hour and nine minutes. The exquisite torture with which Federer can break down even the very best players struck Nishikori as early as the fourth set and, right wrist strapped and a break down, he never recovered. When he held through deuce and Federer served to love for a 5-2 lead after just half an hour, it did not look good for the 24-year-old Nishikori.
The victory took Federer to 70 match wins for the season and to within seven of becoming only the third man behind Jimmy Connors and Ivan Lendl to make it to 1,000 career victories. He fought hard but Federer kept him off balance in the second set with deft switches of direction, and he was reduced to playing rescue shots rather than getting into good positions to hit winners.
No other male player has made it to 60 wins so far this season, and Federer said: “I think it’s a great number. Federer was generous in praise of the 24-year-old loser, who has had by far his best season with victories over Grigor Dimitrov, David Ferrer and Federer in Miami; Raonic and Ferrer in Madrid before retiring injured when well placed against Rafael Nadal in the final; and, in the best week of his career, Raonic, Wawrinka and Djokovic before tired legs gave up on him in the US Open final against Cilic.
“I played only the big tournaments this year. Again, I chased all the Masters 1,000s, grand slams and so forth. It’s not easy to win matches there because guys are always very good, the margins are small. “I think his serve has improved again,” Federer said. “He has good groundstrokes and he’s fast. He is a more complete and better overall. Today maybe he didn’t quite get it going, [but] you could see why he had the success he did have this year.”
“More important for me is getting closer to the 1,000 number. Not that it’s one I’ve ever aimed to reach, but it would obviously be cool to get there.” In that context – even if Nishikori was mildly inconvenienced by a wrist injury and his serving was off – this was a pretty good win for Federer, who is building up a familiar head of steam in a tournament he clearly enjoys.
It was the fifth one-sided victory from five singles matches so far this tournament, with the second set between Federer and Raonic the only really competitive one. As for the disappointment of the one-sided matches here, Federer puts it down to the slow courts, giving baseliners an advantage. “It’s very much a game of movement,” he said. “Whoever’s better from the baseline has the upper hand, then dominates. That’s why we’re seeing heavy scorelines, because it’s just hard to serve your way out of trouble. It’s almost not possible, time and time again. You need to hit a lot of great shots, if it’s not working well for you, to have an impact.
Asked for his explanation, Federer said: “I think it’s actually quite simple, in my opinion, because the court plays somewhat slow, and the serve doesn’t have that much of an impact. “Novak and Stan both have played very well, which made it very difficult for the other guys. Cilic’s and Berdych’s serve didn’t have the impact that we normally know they can have. So, I think the best movers are most likely going to come through here.”
“I think it’s very much a game of movement and a baseline game. Whoever’s better from the baseline has the upper hand, then dominates.
“I think that’s why we’re seeing heavy scorelines, because it’s just hard to serve your way out of trouble.”
Nishikori credited Federer with coming up with the right shots at the biggest moments.
“He took all the important points,” said the 24-year-old, who is still in a decent position to make the semi-finals.
“Maybe he didn’t play 100%, but all the tough points he played good serve, good points. He didn’t give me a chance to come back.
“I didn’t play really bad. But still, I wasn’t really consistent.”