Federer: I didn’t expect to beat Djokovic

Nishikori finally secured victory with a love hold. Undoubtedly, he was the better player on the court. “But, again, the day that I have between the two matches will allow me to reflect on this match with my team, work on things that didn’t go the way I wanted them to go”.

A fail attempt to barge back into the game had Djokovic handing Federer the win.

Roger Federer showed Novak Djokovic won’t have it all his way in London this week with an imposing 7-5, 6-2 triumph over the world No1 on Tuesday.

But Federer was strong Tuesday, as he usually is on an indoor hard court.

With a tie-break looming it was Federer who made the decisive move, missing a forehand on his first set point but playing a fabulous half-volley to convert the second.

Djokovic said later: “I was not even close to my best”. It was a very serve dominated first set as both Federer and Djokovic found the answers when being pegged back by each other.

Either way, the hipster look is a weird one on The Fed (for dinner, he’s going to find a place in London that serves ironic food in mason jars), who is so clean cut that we just expect him to literally be clean cut.

Nishikori said he was looking forward to Thursday’s clash with Federer, the youngest player in the tournament facing the oldest. In beating Federer at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, he won his ninth and 10th major titles. It was the first time Federer had ever lost to his Swiss chum at a grand slam and he was unable to live with Wawrinka’s hefty game.

Djokovic said the match “couldn’t be worse”.

“No question it felt like the best tennis I played this year” the 28-year-old Serb told reporters.

Earlier, Nishikori and Berdych played out the first real contest of the tournament, the O2 Arena witnessing a third set for the first time this week as the Japanese player came through 7-5 3-6 6-3.

“That was a really big point”. I mean, last shot, I kind of went for it, closed my eyes. In the very next game, Djokovic positioned himself into a good position, 15-40, thanks to an unforced error from the Swiss. After Djokovic squandered advantage, Federer struck back for a second match point.

Djokovic was beginning to click into gear in the last game of the match as his errors started to creep down but unfortunately for him the damage had already been done. Then I lost my serve. “Basically, that was the difference today”.

“Well, he wasn’t as good as in the first set, ” Federer said.

The stroke of luck did not prove a turning point, though, as Bopanna and Mergea recovered from 4-2 down to win the second-set tie-break 7-5.

Nishikori is 1-1 after losing to Djokovic on Sunday, and he still has to face Federer.