Roger Federer missed the final of the Nitto ATP World Tour Finals in London. In the O2 arena, the Swiss player lost to the Belgian David Goffin after three sets.
The Swiss Roger Federer’s race of continuing to write history ended for the time being. The 36-year-old missed the chance to play for his seventh final title next Sunday. Federer celebrated his last triumph in 2011.
His opponent in the semi-final was the Belgian David Goffin, who won the decisive group game against Dominic Thiem. And Goffin had to fight right at the beginning. Federer won the side selection and scored five break points in the first game, of which “FedEx” was able to use one and quickly took the lead with a break.
One day before the match, the underdog said:”I don’t know how to play against Federer. To be honest, I don’t have a clue now. I’ll try something different, something new. Something I’ve never done before,”the Belgian confessed. But also the new plan was not going to bring Goffin any success at first: Federer came into the match better and better and got the break to the 4:1 lead with a great backhand combination. After 33 minutes Federer served his third ace to win the set 6:3.
The second round was supposed to be an improvement for the 26-year-old Belgian and Goffin was better placed in the match. With two strong winners he grabbed his first break and took the lead 3:0. Federer seemed inhibited and left Goffin far into the court, who acted with more pressure and forced his opponent to make mistakes. After 70 minutes, Goffin turned his first set ball into a 6-2 equaliser.
A visibly disgruntled “maestro” seemed to have lost the thread and found himself under pressure at the very beginning of the sentence. With a double error and too many “unforced errors”, the Swiss player lost his serve to 1:2. The six-time champion also missed a chance to re-break. Goffin, on the other hand, remained nervous and served himself with two aces to the 2-6,6-3 and 6-4 triumph and thus to the first victory against Federer after six defeats.
“I can’t describe what I’m feeling right now. It’s unbelievable. I was very nervous at the beginning, but then I hit the ball better and it was just my day,”Goffin explained after the match.
Goffin’s final opponent will be determined in the evening between Jack Sock and Grigor Dimitrov (starting at 21:00 in the Liveticker)