ATP World Tour Finals: Rough path ahead for Roger Federer, but not one that's impossible to tread
Roger Federer had everyone hyped up with the way he pushed Novak Djokovic till the end in the Paris Masters semi-final recently. The signs of yet another comeback for the Swiss Maestro were strong going into the ATP World Tour finals. But what happened on 11th November was a different story altogether. He was defeated rather effortlessly by Kei Nishikori in his first Round Robin match.
Federer had beaten Nishikori twice in the past month or so. Things looked ominous for the Japanese considering his opponent's recent form. But, he held on to the first set 7-6. Roger broke Kei's serve right at the start of the second and seemed like he could storm back. But Nishikori broke back and took yet another break to take the set and match.
Roger Federer's service was the glaring statistical weakness at the end, along with the 34 unforced errors. His first serve percentage stood at a meek 54% and the second serve at 84%. To put that into perspective, he had a 71% 1st serve rate and a 95% 2nd serve rate against Djokovic at Paris. The fact that it was a 3 set affair which involved tiebreakers twice makes the numbers pretty impressive.
One could draw parallels of Federer's behaviour on court during this match with that of the 2nd set against Kei Nishikori at Shanghai. The World No.3 looked very annoyed on court. He even got a warning for smashing the ball into the crowd in frustration. A show of anger like that hasn't happened since Federer's younger days.
Roger Federer has to win his remaining couple of matches to have a crack at the semifinals. He'll face Dominic Thiem first up, in today's late fixture. But what's more concerning for the Swiss is that he needs to win against Kevin Anderson as well. It is concerning because of the South African's form.
He beat Thiem first up and just today decimated Federer's Japanese conquerer, dropping just 1 game. Having lost to Anderson already at Wimbledon, Roger finds himself up against it. He has to increase his level manifold to win the 2 matches, especially considering his earlier loss to Nishikori who got dismantled today.
Dominic Thiem won't let Federer off the hook either. He'll be on the prowl as the match is a must win for him as well. It will be a battle of two singlehanded backhands and a pair of great servers. On the positive side, Federer, the clever player that he is, will know a bit about the Austrian's style. There are not many players who know their limitations like he does and that might be an advantage in this case.
Now coming to his imminent clash with Anderson, it'll be a tough examination for one of the all-time greats. A huge service and a newly found strength in both backhands and volleys for the 4th seed means that it'll take something Federeresque to beat him. Who better than Federer to do that? He has a good record against big-serving players and in a best of 3 sets contest he can use it to his advantage without affecting his stamina.
Federer has always taken every loss in his stride. This mental ability has been the key to all of his repeated revivals in tennis and will surely aid his game for the rest of this tournament and beyond.