Roger Federer First Man Into Semi-Finals

Roger Federer became the firs man to bag a spot in the ATP World Tour Finals semis with a win over Robin Soderling yesterday.

The former world number one made it three wins out of three in the round robin stages with a 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 win over the Swede.

Federer, who has looked in great form all week, will top Group B and will play the runner up of Group A, which will be decided later today.

Federer was the overwhelming favourite going into the match with a 14-1 winning head to head record over the new world number four.

And it looked like it was going to be Federer’s day when an early break saw him take the lead. However that lead didn’t last long as a string of forehand errors from Federer allowed Soderling to get the set back on serve.

This was the closest that Federer had been pushed all week and a tie break was needed to decide who would take the opening set.

And it was Federer who got the first mini-break as a string of powerful forehands saw him lead 3-2. But Soderling once again battled back as he regained the mini-break to draw level.

But it was an error from Soderling that cost him the set as he left a Federer backhand that he thought was going long, only to see it land it.

But Soderling continued to battle at the beginning of the second set, carving out two break point chances; but failed to capitalise on any.

Federer, who had only broke through the Soderling serve once, had two break point chances in game four - which the Swede managed to fend off.

But he wasn’t to be as lucky in the eighth game as Federer finally got the decisive break that left him one game from victory.

He served for the set in fine style to wrap up another straight sets win and seal his place in the semi-finals.

Speaking to the BBC after the match he said:  "To play against Robin is never easy. He's a big hitter and you have to work on your defence.

"He can be very frustrating to play against, but I took it to Robin and I'm very pleased to have won."

"I could still have maybe needed some time to wait for the Murray match tonight, so I just wanted to come out and try to play as good a match as I can because losing is never the solution to trying to win a tournament.”

Group A’s final round robin matches get underway this afternoon with Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Tomas Berdych all still in with a chance of making it through.

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw