Roger Federer dumps Novak Djokovic out of ATP Finals with crushing victory
Of all the potential outcomes of Thursday night’s O2 Arena blockbuster, the one thing nobody expected was a Roger Federer beatdown victory over an opponent he had last overcome in 2015.
Based on the evidence of this year’s Wimbledon final – where Federer butchered a pair of match points – we had assumed that he would bump into an impassable mental block whenever he walked out to face old foe Novak Djokovic.
But sport has a way of confounding expectations. In front of an ecstatic crowd on Thursday night, it took Federer only 1hr 12min to land one of his most satisfying wins of the year, and dump a malfunctioning Djokovic out of the ATP Finals by a 6-4, 6-3 scoreline.
“It’s definitely incredibly special,” a glowing Federer said in his on-court interview. “It was magical. At Wimbledon, it was a privilege to play that match this year against Novak. He got it then, so you have to try harder next time. I stayed calm and played great until the end. I couldn’t be happier now.”
The pattern was set at the very beginning. Djokovic sent down two double-faults in his first nine service points. His second delivery on each occasion was tentative, not even reaching 90mph.
Searching for a solution, Djokovic then went for a second-serve ace down the middle – at 114mph – on the next point, and missed that, too. A head start of 30-0 – without even touching the ball – was too polite an invitation for Federer to refuse, and he promptly broke for 2-1.
The momentum was already with Federer, who produced one of his most note-perfect performances. His winner count finished at 23 – including a phenomenal 12 aces – yet there were only five unforced errors as he swung without fear. The fact that so few had backed him to win this match was his secret weapon, lifting the pressure of expectation off his shoulders.
Djokovic can consider himself unlucky to have run into a pair of peaking opponents in successive matches, after Dominic Thiem had struck a scarcely believable tally of 51 winners to win their match on Tuesday night. He also hurt his right elbow early in the second set.
As another Federer piledriver flashed through the court, Djokovic lunged to make a desperate backhand retrieval. He missed the ball then dropped his racket, grabbed his elbow, and bent over in agony.
“I hope it’s nothing that will really unable me to play Madrid,” Djokovic said in his post-match interview, citing next week’s Davis Cup finals.
“The pain was pretty sharp, but I could play the rest of the match. If I had something really serious, I think I wouldn’t be able to hold the racket. So it was probably just an awkward, quick movement that I did. It did not pose any form of issues later on.”
With his opponent zoning, and his own body seizing up, this was going to be a difficult night. The final game found him abandoning ship with a series of wild groundstroke errors. It was uncharacteristic way for Djokovic, the ultimate tennis warrior, to go out. But everything was stacked against him, including the partisan crowd.
This result must have been all the more galling it was such a clear-cut showdown. Unusually for this round-robin format, Federer and Djokovic were playing a straight eliminator to see who would join Thiem, the week’s first qualifier, in the semi-finals.
The implications are manifold. For one thing, Rafael Nadal must have given a little fist pump and “Vamos” in his hotel room at the news that he will finish the year as world No 1 for the fifth time. This is more than just a morale boost, because there are multiple payouts – both from the ATP bonus pool and within individual sponsor contracts – that are triggered by your end-of-season position.
From Federer’s perspective, he maintained his extraordinary record of qualifying from his group at the O2 Arena every time he has shown up. Indeed, there have only been two times since 2001 that he has not played in the knockout stages at the ATP Finals, with both related to injuries. It is a record that will surely never be equalled.
