ATP Finals 2018, Day 3: Federer eases past erratic Thiem, Anderson steamrolls Nishikori

After all the eight players showed their billing in their opening encounters, it was time for things to heat up a little as a semi-final berth and an elimination beckoned on Day 3 of the 2018 Nitto ATP Finals.

First up on court, it was Kei Nishikori, who took on Kevin Anderson for a third tournament in a row and it was the big man from South Africa, who took some sweet revenge of his defeat in Paris, with a scintillating 6-0, 6-1 win, to seal his second consecutive victory at the Nitto ATP Finals.

Anderson started the match putting immediate pressure on the Nishikori serve, making a lot of meaningful returns and keeping the Japanese on the run, earning himself three break points.

And he pounced on the third opportunity by attacking the net to get off to a perfect 2-0 start.

Anderson was brimming with confidence, being almost untouchable on serve and made some powerful returns followed by loads of pulsating groundstroke to steamroll the Japanese No. 1, serving him a nice bagel and taking the opening set 6-0.

The second set was more of the same as Anderson kept dictating the play while Nishikori continued to struggle on serve.

The big South African never really took his foot off the pedal and Nishikori’s game simply crumbled as Anderson cruised past the Japanese, losing just 1 game the whole match. He has now got one foot in the semi-finals.

Next up, it was Roger Federer who took on Dominic Thiem in a must-win encounter for both, and it was the Swiss who eased passed the error-strewn Austrian in straight, 6-2, 6-3, sets to keep a perfect 16-0 record in second round-robin encounters at the ATP finals.

Thiem got off to a bit of a shaky start, making 3 unforced errors in the very first game and with that, gave Federer an early break opportunity. But he settled down just in time to get on the scoreboard first up.

The Austrian played a poor game subsequently though, making four forehand unforced errors and gifting the break advantage to Federer.

The Swiss was in a different mood from a couple of nights ago and broke Thiem’s serve once again as more and more errors started to creep into the Austrian’s game. Federer then served out the set with ease, to take it 6-2.

To start the second set, Federer played a couple of penetrating rallies, with the single hander working in full flow, and with a little help from Thiem’s forehand, got the break immediately.

The Austrian’s poor performance pretty soon turned into a horror show as the unforced error count mounted to 28 in the middle of the second set.

On the other hand, Federer was simply flawless on his deal, unlike Sunday night, losing just 6 points on it in the whole match.

And very soon, the Swiss maestro closed out the set, and the match, with yet another break to get his first victory at the 2018 Nitto ATP Finals.

With this result, the semi-final scenarios in the Lleyton Hewitt group got a little more complicated as no player has sealed his berth in the last four, nor has anyone been eliminated, with Anderson still being the front-runner.