Thiem bundles Federer out

DOMINIC Thiem (left) is congratulated by Roger Federer after the former’s straight sets win on day one of the ATP World Tour Finals tennis tournament in London. AFP Photo

Roger Federer faces an uphill task to qualify for the last four of the ATP Finals after being defeated by Dominic Thiem on Sunday following a masterclass by Novak Djokovic.

Six-time champion Federer was beaten 7-5, 7-5 in the evening match on the opening day after Djokovic had swatted aside debutant Matteo Berrettini in the earlier Group Bjorn Borg contest in London.

Federer and Djokovic will meet later in the week in a repeat of this year’s epic Wimbledon final, with two players advancing from the four-man group.

The Swiss 20-time Grand Slam winner recovered quickly from being broken in the first game of the match but the Austrian fifth seed repeated the dose in the 11th game and took the opening set 7-5.

Federer, uncharacteristically wayward, squandered an early chance to break in the second set and the games went with serve until the 11th game again, when Thiem broke to love after the third seed dumped a forehand into the net.

The Austrian stuttered while serving for the match, forced to save two break points, but he held his nerve to take the set 7-5 and seal a deserved victory on his second match point.

“I thought Dominic saved himself real well when he had to,” said Federer. “So I thought he played a tough first-round performance today, and my game was probably just not good enough, and the start didn’t help.”