Roger Federer Avenges Loss to Milos Raonic in World Tour Final Opener
17-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer made a winning start to his 13th consecutive Barclays ATP World Tour Final campaign, as he defeated Canada’s Milos Raonic 6-1, 7-6(0) in 1 hour and 28 minutes.
The Swiss No. 1 cruised through the opening set in 25 minutes to take a comfortable 6-1 lead over the Canadian. He took command of the match from the early going, forcing Raonic out of his comfort zone, and making him move around the court more than Roanic would have enjoyed.
This, however, changed early in the second set, as Raonic started to make his return shots and slowly saw his confidence and shotmaking creep back into his game. He successfully worked held serve at pivotal moments, and forced Federer into several tight positions in his first four service games.
The contest remained on serve through 12 games, which forced Raonic into a must-win tiebreak to level the match. However, Federer took an early 3-0 lead and simply never looked back. Moments later, he closed out the tiebreak without losing a single point.
Earlier in the day, Kei Nishikori defeated Andy Murray 6-4, 6-4 to take one kick off the Group B round robin.