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SPORTS Friday 15 November 2019
Federer beats Djokovic to reach semis at ATP Finals

LONDON (AP) — Roger Fe- That match was essentially top eight players, and said
derer finally found a way to meaningless as Thiem had he enjoyed the experience
put Novak Djokovic away, already qualified for the despite the early exit.
beating his rival 6-4, 6-3 semifinals after winning his "It was a great week," Ber-
Thursday to reach the semi- first two round-robin match- rettini said. "For sure being
finals of the ATP Finals. es, while Berrettini had no here wasn't a goal at the
It was Federer’s first win chance of advancing after beginning of the year. …
over Djokovic since 2015, two losses. It's just crazy that it hap-
having lost their last five Thiem didn’t play any- pened."
meetings - including that where near as well as in After hitting 50 winners in
epic five-set Wimbledon his wins over Federer and his three-set victory over
final in July when the Serb Djokovic but came from a Djokovic on Tuesday, Thiem
saved two match points. break down to force a tie- finished with just 13 in this
This was their first match breaker in the first set. How- match. "Of course I felt a lit-
since then, but had little of ever, Berrettini raced out to tle bit the two first matches,
the same drama as Djokov- a 6-1 lead in the tiebreaker and then also it's a bit of a
ic gave up three cheap and converted his third set tricky situation to know that
service breaks and Federer point with an ace. I'm already through," the
gave him no chance to In the second set, the Ital- Austrian said. "Of course
get back in the match. ian broke for a 4-2 lead I was still trying to win that
The whole thing lasted just and served out the match match 100%, but also, in
1 hour, 13 minutes and at love, sealing the win with the same time, I knew in my
ended with Djokovic being a forehand drop shot. head that I have to take Roger Federer of Switzerland returns to Novak Djokovic of Serbia
broken at love. Berrettini surprised many just care for Saturday, because during their ATP World Tour Finals singles tennis match at the O2
"I played incredible, and by qualifying for the year- obviously it's the way more Arena in London, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2019.
I knew I had to, because end event for the world's important match there."q Associated Press
that’s what Novak does,"
Federer said. "I was able to
produce, it was definitely
magical."
The result means Djokovic
was eliminated with a 1-2
record in the group stage,
and ensures that Rafael
Nadal will keep hold of the
year-end No. 1 ranking.
Djokovic had a chance to
overtake Nadal and equal
Pete Sampras’ record of
finishing the year as No. 1
for a sixth time by winning
the tournament.
In a match between two
players with a combined
36 Grand Slam titles and 11
ATP Finals championships,
Djokovic was also broken
at love in his second service
game after double-faulting
twice and hitting two shots
into the net.
Federer faced his only
break point at 2-1 in the
second set but held and
then broke for a 3-2 lead.
He finished the match
with just five unforced er-
rors, and that included two
double-faults.
"There was a lot riding on
the match, and I came out
and I think I served great, I
had great anticipation, a
clear game plan," Federer
said. "It worked to perfec-
tion tonight, and hopefully
not the last time against
Novak." Earlier, Matteo Ber-
rettini made sure to leave
the tournament with a vic-
tory by beating Dominic
Thiem 7-6 (3), 6-3.