Federer overcomes slow start in London

Federer had a fright in London, but is now safely through Keystone

Swiss tennis star and world number one Roger Federer rallied to beat Fernando Verdasco in the round-robin stage of the ATP World Tour Finals.

Federer overcame an erratic forehand and a sluggish start in London to win 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 against the Spaniard on Sunday.

The Swiss was broken once in the opening game of the Group A match and only really became dominant late in the second set, when he converted his first break point to even the score at one set apiece.

In the third set at the O2 Arena, Federer was back to his old self. He controlled play, giving Verdasco little chance to stay in the match.

“I was down a set, and only the second set was I able to sort of get the ball into play, find my range, find my rhythm,” Federer said. “This is also when I started to
feel like I had chances.

“I knew the longer the match went, the more my belief was going up and his was going down. Then in the third, I was able to play more freely.”

Federer was riding a two-match losing streak. He was defeated by Novak Djokovic in the Swiss Indoors final earlier this month, and then lost to Julien Benneteau in his
only match at the Paris Masters. The Swiss will now meet Britain’s Andy Murray on Tuesday.

swissinfo.ch and agencies