With his serve impregnable Anderson was able to put pressure on Nishikori’s serve. He won 11 of 22 points on the Japanese’s first serve and 17 of 27 (62%) on the second serve. It was a brutal destruction.
Anderson reeled off the first 11 games of the match‚ taking the first set in 31 minutes. It seemed he was set to become only the second man to win an ATP Finals match without dropping a game‚ but Nishikori managed to take the 12th game of the match to avoid that embarrassment.
“I think [Kevin] started well. That’s why he was more confident after a couple of games. For me‚ I think it was opposite‚” said Nishikori.
“I lost the second game and I was lost a little bit and just didn’t feel the ball today. I played one of the worst matches this year and also he was playing well‚ too.”
QUALIFICAITON SCENARIOS FOR GROUP LLEYTON HEWITT:
1) Regardless of score‚ if FEDERER defeats ANDERSON and THIEM defeats NISHIKORI‚ then FEDERER wins the group and ANDERSON qualifies 2nd.
2) Regardless of score‚ if ANDERSON defeats FEDERER and NISHIKORI defeats THIEM‚ then ANDERSON wins the group and NISHIKORI qualifies 2nd.
3) If FEDERER defeats ANDERSON in 2 sets and NISHIKORI defeats THIEM in 2 sets‚ then THIEM is eliminated and order of remaining players is determined by % of games won.
4) If FEDERER defeats ANDERSON in 2 sets and NISHIKORI defeats THIEM in 3 sets‚ then FEDERER wins the group and ANDERSON qualifies 2nd.
5) If FEDERER defeats ANDERSON in 3 sets and NISHIKORI defeats THIEM‚ then ANDERSON wins the group and NISHIKORI qualifies 2nd.
6) If ANDERSON defeats FEDERER in 2 sets and THIEM defeats NISHIKORI in 2 sets‚ then ANDERSON wins the group and order of remaining players is determined by % of games won.
7) If ANDERSON defeats FEDERER and THIEM defeats NISHIKORI in 3 sets‚ then ANDERSON wins the group and NISHIKORI qualifies 2nd.
8) If ANDERSON defeats FEDERER in 3 sets and THIEM defeats NISHIKORI in 2 sets‚ then ANDERSON wins the group and FEDERER qualifies 2nd.