Roger Federer eases past Tomas Berdych in London

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.

“There’s no question that I played maybe a few of the best tennis I played this year”, said Djokovic. “Anyway, in important moments he was better than me”.

Meanwhile Federer, the oldest Tour Finals qualifier since Andre Agassi in 2005, is undeniably in the twilight of his career, yet the 34-year-old is still good enough to compete for the sport’s top prizes and is in the hunt for a semi-final berth once again after easing past Berdych in 69 minutes.

The Serbian world No1 showed the kind of form that has made him an unbeatable force on indoor courts for more than three years with a 65-minute demolition job. They edged the first set in a breaker, only for the Italians to recover their poise in the second set and soon we were into a taut deciding Champions breaker, in which the Scottish/Australian pair emerged strongest.

The world No 1 oozed confidence as he talked about his display, saying: “I think I was at my best”. Two days is not the match that I care the most about, to be quite honest.

“I couldn’t do anything”. But this was one of the most hurtful emotions and circumstances I could feel.

Since none of Djokovic’s rivals have worked out how to beat him indoors, one reporter asked the Serb for a solution.

Murray, who needs two wins at London’s O2 Arena to finish the season ranked number two for the first time, spent the majority of the week leading up to the tournament practising on clay ahead of the Davis Cup final against Belgium next week. He will still play Kei Nishikori on Thursday in the final round-robin match.

It was the 23rd win in a row for the Serb, who has not lost since Andy Murray in Montreal then Roger Federer in Cincinnati briefly interrupted his run to the US Open title in September, his third slam of the year.

Former Wimbledon champion Murray has made it clear his main priority in the closing weeks of the season is Great Britain’s attempt to win the Davis Cup for the first time since 1936 in their first final since 1978.

“For sure I will have to play better, but you never know”.

Pliskova then tied the final after cruising to a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova as the Czech’s service game and punishing forehand were too much for the Russian to handle.

Jamie Murray and his partner John Peers also had a good start to their tournament, overcoming Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini 11-9 in a match tiebreak.

Although Ferrer broke to open the second set in the following game, Murray slowly fought back as Ferrer continued to struggle to get the ball in play.

He said: “It’s exciting for me”. “But I didn’t allow him to dictate the play”.

He will next face 3rd seed Roger Federer in a clash between Sunday’s Group Stan Smith winners.