At arguably the biggest and most prestigious tournament in the world aside from the four Grand Slams, Roger Federer looked like a different player than the one that had been on display at the Paris Masters. That’s where Federer had succumbed to Milos Raonic in straight sets little more than one week ago.
The 33-year-old flipped the script on Sunday at the World Tour Finals, beating Raonic 6-1, 7-6(0) in Group B round-robin competition. Federer saved all four of the break points he faced–all in the second set–before getting the job done in one hour and 28 minutes.
London’s No. 2 seed got off to a fast start by breaking serve right away for a 2-0 advantage in the first set. He made a smart move by challenging a non-call on a missed first serve on break point, then capitalized on his chance at a second offering. A shanked forehand by Raonic at 1-4 gave Federer another service break.
Raonic performed far better in the second, to the extent that he probably should have won it. The eighth-ranked Canadian earned two break points at 2-1, another at 3-2, and a set point at 6-5. Federer thwarted the last one with a second serve off the line and he was off to the races in the ensuing tiebreaker. Continuing to block back his opponent’s huge serves in impressive fashion, Federer did not lose a single point in the ‘breaker.
The forehand battle doomed Raonic, who committed 16 unforced errors off that wing. Serving at 47 percent also did not help. Federer, meanwhile, struck 10 forehand winners compared to only four mistakes.
“I believe he played better today” Raonic said, comparing their two fall matches. “I started off not playing nearly as well, but I think I sort of found that Paris level that I had against him come the second set…. He was a lot more consistent [in] his return games. Today the big difference was when he would get his racket on the ball, he would make me play all the time.”
“I think I played really well for one and a half sets,” Federer explained. “It was good to get off to a get start. I broke (in the) first game and sort of never looked back.”
The six-time World Tour Finals champion will hope that’s the case throughout the entire tournament. His week is set to continue on Tuesday afternoon against Kei Nishikori, who opened the event with a 6-4, 6-4 defeat of Andy Murray.
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