London: Roger Federer insists his imperious form in the group stages of the ATP World Tour Finals counts for nothing now he has reached the semi-finals.
At the end of a frustrating season by his own high standards, Federer seems to have saved his best until last and has ripped through his three round-robin matches with the air of a man who has a point to prove.
David Ferrer, Andy Murray and Robin Soderling are all ranked in the world's top eight but none could even take a set off Federer in the prestigious end-of-season event at London's O2 Arena this week.
This was Federer at his sublime best. On Thursday, Soderling was desperate for the win he needed to make the semi-finals and came at Federer with all guns blazing, but the Swiss star had the answer to everything his opponent threw at him.
Hard work
Yet Federer, who has won this event four times, knows his hard work in the group stage will be wasted unless he leaves London with the title.
He could face either Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic or Tomas Berdych in Saturday's semi-finals, depending on their Group A results on Friday, and expects a stern examination.
"I'm still two matches away (from winning the title), two really tough matches. I'm most likely going to play against top five guys," Federer said.
"It depends who I play, I don't even know yet but it's going to be a tough weekend ahead of me. That's my focus right now.
Straight sets
"So far it's been good. I won against top 10 players in straight sets.
"That's going to make me feel obviously awfully good for the weekend. But I hope I can keep it up.
"The tournament's not over yet. This is really when it starts for me."
ATP World Tour Finals (x denotes seeding):
Group B:
Roger Federer (SUI x2) beat Robin Soderling (SWE x4) 7-6 (7/5), 6-3.
Andy Murray (GBR x5) beat David Ferrer (ESP x7) 6-2, 6-2.
results
