Roger Federer stuns Novak Djokovic

Roger Federer has ended Novak Djokovic’s 23-match winning sequence, the long-time No. 1 upsetting the incumbent 7-5, 6-2 to remain unbeaten in the group phase of the ATP World Tour Finals.

Djokovic still looks likely to qualify with his match against Tomas Berdych still to come, but today’s loss will still come as a disappointment to a player who hadn’t lost indoors since 2012.

Before the loss, Djokovic, 28, has not tasted defeat elsewhere since his last loss to Federer in Cincinnati last August.

Djokovic trounced Kei Nishikori 6-1 6-1 in his opening fixture and the Serbian – who won three out of four grand slam titles this year – will reassess what needs to be done to return to winning ways against Tomas Berdych in his final round-robin encounter. The latter defeated Berdych 7-5 3-6 6-3 in the afternoon.

Nishikori took two hours and 23 minutes to battle past Berdych, and will play Federer on Thursday. The sixth-seeded Berdych had his third break point of the match – after converting the previous two – but he put a backhand into the net after a long rally with Nishikori on the defensive.

Djokovic appeared below his best in the second set, and acknowledged this after the match: “You have those days as well when you’re not feeling your best…just handed him the win”. A few scrappy play from Berdych left the Czech player down at 0-40 and Nishikori broke his opponent from there to serve for the match.

“I know it’s a big win”.

Federer won 75 per cent (27 of 36) of his first-serve points, and converted four of eight break-point opportunities.

Djokovic could even scramble through with a three-set defeat, providing Nishikori does not win.

LONDON (AP) – Even the best player in the world can have an off day, especially when he’s playing someone many believe is the best of all time. By contrast, every one of Djokovic’s uncharacteristic 22 unforced errors in the course of the match were rather uncharitably cheered to the rooftops.

With a 79-5 season record coming into the second group match, this sort of treatment is not what Djokovic is used to, and he could nearly be forgiven for forgetting what it was like. I’ll take a note. “(It) was a little bit lucky I made that shot”, he said. In what has become arguably the greatest rivalry in the history of Open era men’s tennis, Djokovic missed his golden chance to finally edge in front of Federer in their head-to-head after nine years of trying.

“I think that’s why I could really have that approach to just say, “Let’s see what happens”.