Federer fightback proves his hunger to finish season on a high
Roger Federer is in such a rich vein of form that he is even winning matches he could afford to lose. Yesterday’s meeting with Marin Cilic in the Nitto ATP Tour Finals at the O2 Arena was a dead rubber, so when Cilic took the first set, Federer would have had every reason to drop his intensity. Instead, he raised it.
By coming back to claim a 6-7, 6-4, 6-1 victory, Federer maintained his record of only having lost four times all season. He also stayed on track for the potential maximum payout of 1,500 rankings points if he wins all five matches at this tournament. Which would send him into 2018 right on Rafael Nadal’s tail, only 140 points behind. “I told myself to try to relax a little bit,” Federer told Annabel Croft in his oncourt interview. “Still, I wanted to keep the momentum going.
“Knowing you have qualified on Tuesday evening is kind of weird,” said Federer, who knew he would finish at the top of the Boris Becker Group whatever happened yesterday, and would avoid the other group winner, Grigor Dimitrov, in the semi-finals.
In last night’s match, Jack Sock secured a semi-final against Dimitrov with a 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 victory over world No3 Alexander Zverev.
Meanwhile, Nadal may have been forced out of this tournament by knee trouble, but he scored a victory yesterday as well, though his came in a French legal court. This was the outcome of a defamation case that he had brought against Roselyne Bachelot, the former French health and safety minister, who had claimed last year that Nadal was serving a silent doping ban when he sat out the second half of the 2012 season.
Neither party appeared in person at the trial, but Nadal’s lawyer brought medical evidence that Nadal was unable to play during that period because of his knees, while Bachelot could not support her claim with proof. As a result, she was fined £454 and told to pay £10,700 in legal fees. Her liability could have been higher, but the judge said there were no grounds to believe that her comments – which had been broadcast by the D8 channel in March 2016 – had damaged Nadal’s relationships with sponsors.
Nadal said in a statement: “When I filed the lawsuit I intended not only to defend my integrity and my image as an athlete, but also the values I have defended all my career. I also wish to avoid any public figure from making insulting or false allegations against an athlete using the media, without any evidence or foundation and to go unpunished.
“The motivation as I have always remarked was not economical. The compensation will be paid back in full to an NGO or [charitable] foundation in France.”
Czech police have abandoned efforts to track down the burglar who slashed the former Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova with a knife last year. “Despite extensive investigation, we have not managed to identify the attacker to date,” said detective Jan Lisicky.