George Bellshaw Monday 12 Nov 2018 11:56 am Roger Federer suffered a surprising defeat to Kei Nishikori on Sunday night as the ATP Finals got off to a dramatic start.
The Swiss is a six-time champion at the season-ending event but looked well short of his best as he slumped to a 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 loss at the hands of the Japanese No. 1. It’s always premature to read too much into a single result at the ATP Finals, particularly with the round robin format allowing Federer a shot at redemption, but there were several themes of interest worthy of discussion following his first-day loss.
There’s no sense in writing the Swiss maestro’s obituary just yet. He has, after all, surprised us on so many occasions in the past, but there’s no denying this season has been a major reality check. His form has drastically declined since beginning the year with a 20th Grand Slam win and he is without a top-10 win since defeating Grigor Dimitrov way back in February.
Okay… so Federer did beat Nishikori – then ranked world No. 11 – just a matter of weeks ago in Paris but he is without a Masters 1000 title this year and is being caused plenty of problems by people he would have swept aside without so much as a second look in the past.
The reasons for his struggles are many, but there can be a simple momentum shift that arises from added belief from lesser opponents, which so often arises in perfect tandem with a dip in confidence from the top players. Put simply, there’s more belief than ever among the ATP Tour that the 37-year-old is there for the taking and that feeling will only continue to grow with performances of this ilk.
0 comments
Post a Comment