Japan’s Kei Nishikori keeps hopes alive in London

Federer outclassed Tomas Berdych 6-4 6-2 to kickstart his 14th consecutive appearance at the season-ender on Sunday, a few hours after world number one Djokovic had demolished Japan’s world number eight Kei Nishikori 6-1 6-1.

Roger Federer opened this year ” s World Tour Finals with a convincing win over 6th seed Tomas Berdych.

Britain’s Jamie Murray won on his debut as he and doubles partner John Peers beat Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini.

The O2 Arena paused for a minute’s silence prior to the match to remember the victims of the Paris attacks on Friday, the court bathed in red, white and blue.

“All my heart goes out to the families of the lost ones”, Djokovic said.

The Japanese had a first serve percentage of 53 in the Group Stan Smith opener at the O2 Arena, falling to defeat to the world number one in just 65 minutes.

That said, Nishikori’s end of season form has been poor. “Why I’m able to continue on and kind of maintain this consistency or this success is because I’m trying to not think too much in advance because whatever happened in the past is behind me and whatever is in the future, I don’t know what’s going to happen”.

“But he played great defence so many times where I usually hit the victor or I get the point”.

No ONE has come close to cracking the riddle of beating Novak Djokovic on an indoor court for more than three years and yesterday Kei Nishikori became the latest player to discover just how hard it is to solve that puzzle.

The day even ended with the Swiss holding aloft two trophies, taking the Stefan Edberg sportsmanship award for the 11th year, and fans’ favourite award for the 13th successive year. I think I played a solid match.

Unaffected by that sombre opening, Djokovic set about dismantling Nishikori in typically relentless fashion and landed the first blow with a break in the second game.

“We were both struggling with rhythm, I remember”.

Federer took complete control with seven games in a row for a 4-0 lead in the second set and promptly wrapped up victory.

The 34-year-old Swiss is hoping not to make the same mistakes he did when he play Djokovic next. He beat Djokovic to claim the titles at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships 6-3 7-5 and the Western & Southern Open 7-6(1) 6-3, two of the six tournaments that they went up against each other this year. “I have to clean that up clearly for the next match”, he said. Djokovic was using the drop shot to great effect and consistent dictating from the baseline to limit any chance Nishikori had of getting back into the match.

“Today I couldn’t do anything”, Nishikori said. It’s lots to look forward to, obviously starting with today. It’s a huge event for us, which we’re really excited to be a part of.