Nishikori recovers to see off Berdych at ATP World Tour Finals

Tuesday afternoon’s encounter was the first to go the distance in London this year with Berdych levelling from a set and a break down to force a decider before Nishikori secured a 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 victory in two hours and 23 minutes.

Djokovic, who has a one-year-old son, said: ” It was really touching.

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Ultimately, Nishikori’s slight superiority told when he broke in the penultimate game to win the first set 7-5. Berdych was 2-0 down in the second set but managed to turn it around, converting both his break point chances. I think my serve was the key as in both sets I lost my first service game.

Sunday’s opening matches were reminiscent of numerous one-sided singles matches here a year ago, and Federer said the slowish court surface meant it was very hard to turn around a match once you fall behind.

The Serb has won the big ones – two Wimbledon and a US Open final – but the Swiss has won five of the eight best-of-three-set matches, including three at the Masters. Murray ended up winning 19 of the 32 points off Ferrer’s second serve. “I have to accept it and hopefully work on it tomorrow and get better next time”.

This match is, of course, the final we never got to see at last year’s World Tour Finals, when Djokovic and Federer were supposed to face off for the title at the O2 only for Federer to pull out because of a back injury.

“Indoors has helped my game throughout my career and the idea of playing fellow top 10 players gets me really excited”.

Murray was asked about the Paris attacks on Monday, and whether he was scared to go to Belgium at the end of the month to play in the Davis Cup final.

Djokovic has given himself an excellent platform to qualify for the semifinals, and should be full of confidence for his next match, against Federer on Tuesday.

Kvitova, ranked number six in the world, broke the Russian in the first game and again in the ninth to take the set 6-3. Many little things, as I said, that were not good today.

“Today I’ve had for an opponent one of the quickest tennis players, somebody that possesses a lot of talent and loves to play aggressively”. “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”.

Federer added that his match against the sensational Serb is not the one that he “cares the most about”, but also said that it will be a “very important” one.