



1 Novak Djokovic was soundly beaten by fifth seeded David Ferrer 6-3, 6-1 at the ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 in London on Wednesday. The victory gives the Spaniard a 2-0 record in Group A of the round-robin event qualifying him for the semifinals on Saturday.
It was only the fifth loss for Djokovic this year.
“I am very motivated, I am in the semi-finals,” said Ferrer. I want to enjoy this moment. I don’t want to think about the semi-final on Saturday.
“I think maybe today was my best match of the season. I felt good before the match. Maybe the key was in my serve. The last times against Nole, I haven’t served really good.”
Both men held serve until 3-3 in the first set until Ferrer went on a tear, capturing six consecutive games to take a 6-3, 3-0 lead winning the majority of baseline rallies. Ferrer hit 18 winners in the match while Djokovic made 33 unforced errors.
“All the credit to (Ferrer), he played great match,” said Djokovic. “It was the worst match I’ve played this season so far definitely. So many unforced errors. I’m not playing well – that’s a fact.
“At this level you know that you have to deliver your best tennis. I wasn’t on my best in the first match (against Tomas Berdych), but I managed to kind of get into the rhythm in the second set. This match, I have no words to explain. Nothing was going really (for me). Nothing was going well.
“He was playing smart, changing rhythm. You always can kind of expect and predict what he’s going to come up on the court with. He doesn’t drop with the level that much. He’s always focused, always fighting for each point. He’s a great player. He deserved to win.”
In the afternoon session Tomas Berdych saved a match point on the way to a 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(6) win over Janko Tipsarevic, keeping his hopes alive of advancing out of Group A. On Monday Berdych squandered a match point against Djokovic and eventually lost to him.
“I was a bit unlucky on Monday. I got luckier here,” Berdych said.
Tipsarevic is a substitute for Andy Murray who withdrew from the tournament with groin injury. Tipsarevic fell near the end of the match hurting his knee, but expects to compete in his scheduled round- robin match against countryman Novak Djokovic.
Results – Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Singles – Group A Round Robin
[5] D Ferrer (ESP) d [1] N Djokovic (SRB) 63 61
[7] T Berdych (CZE) d [9] J Tipsarevic (SRB) 26 63 76(6) – saved 1 M.P.
Doubles – Group A Round Robin
[1] B Bryan (USA) / M Bryan (USA) d [6] R Lindstedt (SWE) / H Tecau (ROU) 61 62
[4] M Bhupathi (IND) / L Paes (IND) d [7] J Melzer (AUT) / P Petzschner (GER) 75 63
Order of play for Thursday, November 24, 2011