By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Sunday November 10, 2019
When it comes to the career of Austria’s Dominic Thiem, two trends are undeniably present. First, the Aussie is a vastly improved player on the hard courts compared to where he was a year ago; second, Thiem has Roger Federer’s number.
Thiem pushed both trends forward on Sunday in London as he notched his third consecutive victory over Roger Federer, 7-5 7-5. Thiem improved to 5-2 lifetime against the six-time ATP Finals champion, and he put himself in good position to push through and reach the semifinals at the ATP Finals for the first time on his fourth career appearance.
Federer, who has reached the semifinals at the ATP’s prestigious season-ending championships in 15 of 17 career appearances, has his work cut out for him with matches against Novak Djokovic and Matteo Berrettini still remaining.
"It's every single time overwhelming and breathtaking to enter this arena," Thiem said after the victory, adding: "Of course it's always something to beat Roger, he's an absolute legend. I love to play against him just to learn a lot."
It was a close match from start to finish but Thiem managed to pull away late in each set to ride to victory.
He broke for 6-5 in the opener after the pair had traded breaks, and held to close out the opening set.
The second set was close, and Federer pressured early but saw his progress halted when Thiem hit the shot of the day to save a break point while serving at 1-2. Federer appeared to have control of a long rally after he pummeled a sharp-angled crosscourt forehand but Thiem made a last-ditch play on the ball and went for broke, driving a hard, flat forehand up the line to win the point.
The Austrian held and later broke through with a break for 6-5 before surviving two more break points and converting his second match point to lock up the victory.
Thiem is one of just five of the 74 players that have faced Federer six or more times to own a winning lifetime record against the 20-time major champ. The other four are Djokovic (26-22), Rafael Nadal (24-16), Alexander Zverev (4-3) and Yevgeny Kafelnikov (4-2).
“I didn't feel like I was outplayed or anything,” Federer later reflected. “Just maybe that first-round hiccups a little bit, not hitting your spots on the serve when you need to, getting into trouble early in the service games which maybe doesn't happen later on in the tournament.”
The Swiss drops to 57-16 lifetime at the ATP Finals, and 12-5 in his opening match.
Thiem, who improved to 4-6 lifetime at the ATP Finals, will face five-time champion Djokovic on Tuesday.
“I think he's the best right now,” Thiem said of the Serb. “He proved that also in Bercy where he didn't somehow play his best tennis, but still won the title pretty easy.”
Federer will face Berrettini on Tuesday.
Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo defeated Filip Polasek and Ivan Dodig 4-6 6-4 10-5 while Raven Klaasen and Michael Venus defeated Joe Salisbury and Rajeev Ram 6-3 6-4 in Group Bjorn Borg doubles action on Sunday.
On Monday Group Andre Agassi will kick off its Round Robin play with Debutantes Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas squaring off in the first singles match, followed by Rafael Nadal and Alexander Zverev in the singles nightcap.
See the full Monday schedule below: