Swede Robin Soderling became the first qualifier for the semifinals at the ATP World Tour Finals Wednesday when he battered world No. 3 Novak Djokovic 7-6, 6-1 for his second major shock of the tournament. Soderling, only competing in the elite year-end showpiece at London's O2 Arena after Andy Roddick's injury-enforced withdrawal, backed up his opening Group B win over Rafael Nadal with another magnificent display of power and precision. Djokovic has played almost 100 matches on Tour this year, including his three-hour victory over Nikolay Davydenko in his opening round-robin match in Group B here Monday, and it showed as he appeared to throw in the towel in the second set. The Serb, winner of the tournament 12 months ago when it was held in Shanghai, barely had enough energy afterwards to answer questions about his defeat and he will have to pick himself up quickly for his final round-robin match against Nadal which will decide whether or not he joins Soderling in the semis. “I didn't enjoy playing today's match, that's for sure,” Djokovic, who made 24 unforced errors and hit just six baseline winners in the match, told reporters. Monaco-based Soderling employs high-risk tactics but when he serves as he did Wednesday and swings freely on his forehand it is clear to see why the 25-year-old has enjoyed the best year of career that took a while to bloom. Roger Federer beat Britain's Andy Murray in three sets Tuesday to guarantee finishing the season as the world No. 1. The Swiss won the Group A round-robin match 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 in one hour and 57 minutes before a capacity crowd of 17,500 at London's O2 Arena as the world No. 4 slowly crumbled. The win earned Federer enough ranking points to ensure he cannot be overtaken by Spain's Rafael Nadal at the season-ending tournament of the world's top players in the British capital. It helped him reclaim his spot at the top of the tennis world, securing the year-end No. 1 ranking for the fifth time in his career. The record 15-time Grand Slam champion is now closing in on Pete Sampras' all-time mark of six. Champions Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic lost all hope of defending their ATP World Tour Finals doubles title when they lost 6-3, 6-4 to Czech Frantisek Cermak and Slovakian Michal Mertinak. Group A is topped by the undefeated pairing of Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles who beat Polish duo Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski 3-6, 6-3, 10-7. In Thursday's final Group A games, Federer must defeat Argentina's Juan Martin del Potro if he does not want to risk going out of the tournament.
