Kei Nishikori beats Tomas Berdych in 3 sets at ATP final

In what was the first ATP World Tour Final match after Djokovic’s victory over Murray in Paris a few weeks ago it what was the Serbian who raced out of the blocks amassing a 3-0 lead in the first set.

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Berdych, in his sixth straight appearance at the World Tour Finals, has never won his opening match but has responded by winning all five of his previous second encounters.

The Czech was unable to get any kind of foothold in the match as Federer broke him again to amass a 3-0 in the second set. “I think that’s what made things tough for Leon last time”.

The 28-year-old Djokovic broke Nishikori early and took the first set in just 31 minutes.

“It’s going to help me for next year”.

Meanwhile, Jamie Murray and John Peers have work to do to reach the semi-finals of the doubles after losing their second match 6-3 7-6 (7/5) to Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea. The seventh-seeded Spaniard had eight double-faults and landed only 49% of his first serves, while the British No 1 struck 23 winners and won an impressive 80% of his first serve points. But we were both playing quite bad, I thought. The set went with serve until at 4 games apiece when Berdych hit a couple of unforced errors and Federer secured the break from there. “Another one to play with him, challenge him, just try to have a good one for the last match of the season”, said Berdych. “I’m very ashamed with this score”.

“All my heart goes out to the families of the lost ones, it’s really devastating to see those images and that footage”, said Djokovic.

The two tournament favorites have split 42 career meetings but lately Djokovic’s had the edge, and he won recently at the US Open on a court more suited to Federer.

Thirty-seven of their past 38 matches have been either semis (21) or finals (16) – the lone exception is their opening Group B clash on Day 2 of the 2013 World Tour Finals.

“It’s an exciting time for me”, he said. “Seems like whoever takes charge of the baseline, and if you can not serve your way out of trouble often enough, which is hard to do here because of the pace of the court, the guy from the baseline wins, the better one”.

“I didn’t really think about it that much”, said the 29-year-old Scot, who will play with Brazil’s Bruno Soares next year.

“I know it’s a big win. That’s why it’s interesting here, you can lose the first match, still qualify”, Wawrinka said.

Murray, who will face either Stan Wawrinka or Rafael Nadal on Wednesday, now only needs one more victory to guarantee he will finish the year ahead of Roger Federer at world number two.

The third-seeded Swiss struck 13 aces and saved all six break points faced, but misfired on a forehand to drop the first set and was on the receiving end of an unplayable 145 miles per hour Isner serve on the final point of the match.