Novak Djokovic rolls over Kei Nishikori at tennis World Tour Finals

“Was one of the worst starts I’ve had in years”, Federer told reporters.

Djokovic has won all of those last three meetings, beating Federer to lift the title in 2012, battling to a 6-4, 6-7(2), 6-2 win in the group stage in 2013, and benefiting from a walkover 12 months ago when Federer pulled out with an injury.

Novak Djokovic’s train keeps rolling in London as the Serb crushes Kei Nishikori to open his bid for a 5th World Tour Finals title.

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

“Yeah, you have those days as well, when you are not feeling your best, not even close to the best”, Djokovic said.

The Swiss legend was nominated alongside Rafael Nadal, David Ferrer and Kevin Anderson for the award, but the trio must have known they were up against it given Federer’s complete dominance of the award, which is voted for by the players on the ATP Tour. He used the slice and spin very wisely. He served at only 35%, and Roger had no troubles dealing with his weaker second serve. “From my point of view, just try to do the best we can, finish on a high, try to make a great year even better”. Just handed him the win, especially in the second set.

Djokovic has been the best player in tennis all year, winning three Grand Slam titles and losing the other in the final at the French Open.

Andy Murray strongly hinted that Aljaz Bedene would get his vote should he win his appeal and become eligible for Great Britain’s Davis Cup final team.

Jamie Murray and his partner John Peers start the day with the opening doubles match, the pair who won their opener take on Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea who began their campaign with victory over the Bryan brothers. Those are the kind of trophies and milestones that mean the most to me…

Murray said: “The first couple of games my timing was a little bit off. But I got it back pretty quickly, which was pleasing”. From that point, it was Berdych who looked the least fit of the two, and his opponent broke at 5-3, and then took four straight points in his service game for victory.

“Many different things came together that I managed to have the year I have today”, Djokovic said.

Earlier in the same group of four, Japan’s Kei Nishikori gave his hopes of reaching the semis a major boost with a 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 victory over Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic.

As Djokovic romped to a 3-0 lead in the opening set, there were few opportunities for Nishikori’s fan club to pick up the vast numbers of Japanese flags draped over the arena’s metal railings.

And he gave himself a chance of keeping that record going when he reeled off five straight games from 2-0 down on his way to levelling the match.