Djokovic to face Nadal at ATP semifinals

The world No 1 required one set to guarantee the runners-up spot in the Stan Smith Group behind unbeaten section victor Roger Federer, who earlier beat Kei Nishikori.

But Djokovic has won all three matches this year, including the Beijing final in straight sets last month.

Roger Federer feels in an “ideal situation” heading into the last four of the ATP World Tour Finals after maintaining his flawless record in London at the expense of Kei Nishikori on Thursday.

But Murray said: “I think the way the format is, nearly every game is important. I see it more as a good thing because I guess it is good also to have a changing of the guard eventually”. “I think physically I have to be little more strong”, Nishikori said after his season came to an end with a defeat against Federer at the ATP Tour Finals in London on Thursday. “I just think it’s been a bit unfortunate the way a few of the matches have ended the last couple of years”.

With Federer picking up a three sets win earlier in the day, Berdych needed to win in straight sets to advance to the semifinals.

The Swiss world No. 3 converted all six of his break points against the tenacious Nishikori, who fought back from a set and 1-4 down to take the entertaining match to a decider.

It is true, says Federer, that there are no longer the tales of teens winning slams that Rafael Nadal inherited from the likes of Boris Becker, Mats Wilander, Michael Chang and Pete Sampras and has passed on to, well, no one yet. The first three games of the second set were serve dominated and it was 2-1 Federer in the blink of an eye. “I want to keep doing that”, he added. In the fourth game of the opening set, Federer all lazy elegance from the back court, set up the breakpoint opportunity, before lulling his 25-year old opponent into a routine crosscourt rally from the backhand side.

While Federer had already advanced to the semifinals, he never there was no let-up in the third set even as Nishikori kept finding ways of getting back into the match. That was my big mistake that I did today.

Ferrer surged to 16 of 20 points in the next four games to build a 4-3 lead at the O2 Arena.

The Swiss had qualified with victory over world number one Djokovic on Tuesday, but Nishikori still had a chance to progress and pushed the third seed to the limit in a match he did not need to win.

A less competitive player might have thrown in the towel after winning just two games against Djokovic.

“I’m going to try to play my game”.

“It is a shame to lose like this (but) I thought I was playing well”.

After the match he faced more questions about his weeklong stubble than about the struggles with his serve that saw him broken five times.