It was a bad day at the office for world no.1.
Top seed and defending champion Novak Djokovic suffered his sixth match loss of a season on Tuesday, in his second round-robin match at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.
Swiss Roger Federer recorded a 7-5, 6-2 win in 77 minutes to advance into the semi-finals.
Games went with serve until the 12th game, when the six-time former titlist took advantage of Novak’s mistakes and seized the momentum, breaking the Serb to take the opening set. The players had traded breaks once in the second set, before Roger broke twice more to move ahead 22-21 in their ATP career head-to-head meetings.
Djokovic had previously won 15 straight matches at The O2. The defeat also brought an end to Nole’s 38-match winning run indoors.
“You have those days when you’re not feeling your best – not even close to your best,” said Novak. “Credit to Roger for mixing up the pace, giving me always a different ball. He used the slice and spin very wisely. He served very efficiently. I made a lot of unforced errors. Just handed him the win, especially in the second set. But, again, that’s sport. The good thing is that it’s a round-robin system, so I still have an opportunity to reach semis.”
Match statistics: aces (2-6), double faults (1-2), winners (12-19), unforced errors (22-19), total points won (51-68).
Novak will face no.6 seed Tomas Berdych (CZE) on Thursday at 21:00 CET. The 28-year-old Belgrade native leads their H2H series 20-2.
Singles Group Stan Smith semi-final qualification scenarios after the completion of the second round of the event’s group stage:
1) Regardless of score, if Novak defeats Berdych and Federer defeats Nishikori, then Federer wins the group and Nole qualifies 2nd.
2) Regardless of score, if Novak defeats Berdych and Nishikori defeats Federer, then Federer wins the group and Nole qualifies 2nd.
3) Regardless of score, if Berdych defeats Novak and Nishikori defeats Federer, then Nishikori wins the group and Federer qualifies 2nd.
4) If Berdych defeats Novak in 2 sets and Federer defeats Nishikori in 2 sets, then Federer wins the group and Berdych qualifies 2nd.
5) If Berdych defeats Novak in 2 sets and Federer defeats Nishikori in 3 sets, then Federer wins the group and Berdych qualifies 2nd.
6) If Berdych defeats Novak in 3 sets and Federer defeats Nishikori in 2 sets, then Federer wins the group and Nole qualifies 2nd.
7) If Berdych defeats Novak in 3 sets and Federer defeats Nishikori in 3 sets, then Federer wins the group and Nole qualifies 2nd.
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