London, England (SportsNetwork.com) – Six-time champion Roger Federer was
an easy round-robin winner Tuesday at the season-ending $6 million ATP World
Tour Finals in London.
The second-seeded Wimbledon runner-up and former world No. 1 superstar handled
fourth-seeded U.S. Open finalist Kei Nishikori 6-3, 6-2 in 69 minutes at The
O2. Federer smacked seven aces and was not broken on Day 3, while Nishikori
coughed up his serve three times en route to defeat.
Federer improved to 2-0 in the four-player Group B with his tour-best 70th
match win of the year, while Nishikori dropped to 1-1 for the week.
Federer, who is making a record 13th consecutive appearance at the Tour
Finals and has an outside chance of capturing the year-end top ranking,
holds the record for the most titles at this exclusive event.
If Federer were to qualify for his 12th career Tour Finals semifinal, it would
tie the record set by Ivan Lendl. The 33-year-old Swiss icon would also be the
oldest player to advance to the last four since 2003 runner-up Andre Agassi.
Tuesday’s Group B night session match will pit fifth-seeded British favorite
Andy Murray (0-1) against seventh-seeded Milos Raonic (0-1).
Wednesday’s round-robin action will come from Group A, as world No. 1 and
Wimbledon titlist Novak Djokovic (1-0) will take on third-seeded Australian
Open champ Stan Wawrinka (1-0) and sixth-seeded former Wimbledon runner-up
Tomas Berdych (0-1) will face sixth-seeded U.S. Open champ Marin Cilic (0-1).
The reigning two-time and three-time overall Tour Finals champion Djokovic
topped Rafael Nadal in last year’s finale here in London. The 27-year-old
star is two wins away from clinching the year-end No. 1 ranking for the third
time in four years.
Nishikori, Raonic and Cilic are making their Tour Finals debuts this week.
Round-robin action will be staged here through Friday, followed by the
semifinals on Saturday and lucrative final on Sunday.
