London: World number one and defending champion Novak Djokovic took full responsibility for his straight-sets loss to Roger Federer in their preliminary round match at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals late on Tuesday.
Chasing a record seventh crown, Federer won 7-5, 6-2 before a packed court at the O2 Arena here. The win puts the Swiss firmly into contention for a spot in the semi-finals, leaving Djokovic one last opportunity of defeating Tomas Berdych and gaining a knockout entry.
Djokovic admitted he was to be blamed for the defeat. “All credit to Roger for mixing up the pace and always giving me a different ball. He used the slice and spin very wisely and served efficiently. I made a lot of unforced errors and just handed him the win, especially in the second set,” Djokovic admitted later.
“The good thing is that it’s a round-robin system, so I still have an opportunity to reach the semi-finals,” he added.
The 28-year-old, who is aiming to be the first man in history to score four successive titles at the season finale, was all praise for the way Federer executed his plan to perfection. “He [Federer] played well tactically. Undoubtedly, he was the better player on court. But I think I also allowed him to play and penetrate through the ball and dictate the tempo from the baseline,” Djokovic admitted.
“I didn’t have this follow-through on my shots, no depth honestly, made too many mistakes. Basically if you play this way against Roger, you have no chance. I was hoping that when I broke back in the second, I’m going to start playing better, but it just wasn’t to be today,” he added.
Going into his third and final qualifying match against Berdych, the Serb refused to allow the loss to pull him down mentally. “Of course, you never want to lose as an athlete. You’re not coming to these matches and these tournaments to lose, you’re coming to win. I need to now reflect on the things I’ve done wrong tonight, why this happened, and keep moving forward,” Djokovic insisted.
“This is the last week of the year. Obviously, it’s been a long season, but I need to push myself mentally, physically, emotionally as far as I can in this tournament. I have another group stage match and I need to win it to get through,” he added.
