LONDON — Roger Federer provided an emphatic reminder that he will be chasing more major titles next year with a vintage display to outclass Britain’s Andy Murray on Sunday and set up a season-ending blockbuster with Novak Djokovic. Report by Supersport
The final was due to take place last night.
The Swiss 17-times grand slam champion, who will turn 32 next year, continued his dominance of the ATP World Tour Finals with a 7-6, 6-2 victory over the man who deprived him of Olympic singles gold at Wimbledon.
In his eighth final in 11 years at the ATP’s blue-riband tournament, Federer will face world No 1 Djokovic after the Serb’s granite-like defences helped repel the brute force of Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro for a 4-6, 6-3 and 6-2 victory.
Neither semi-final lived up to their prematch billing although Federer’s majestic form after a slow start against Murray had a sell-out crowd at the O2 Arena in raptures even if he was playing a home favourite.
Murray, who bounced back to win Olympic gold and then the US Open after the heartache of losing to Federer in this year’s Wimbledon final, made a lightning start, breaking in the opening game, but ultimately played second fiddle to the master.
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Federer edged an hour-long first set after an exemplary tiebreak and then turned on the style in the second to move one victory away fraom winning a hat-trick of titles at the Thames-side arena that has been hosting the championships since 2009.
“I love playing Novak,” Federer said, looking ahead to Monday’s final. “I think for both of us, it’s pretty straightforward. I think we’ve got to press out the last juice that’s left in our body and make it a successful year end.”