LONDON: Dominic Thiem produced a scintillating display of attacking tennis to beat Novak Djokovic and qualify for the last four at the ATP Finals on Tuesday, leaving the Serbian facing a shootout against Roger Federer.

In the standout match so far at London’s O2 Arena, the Austrian fifth seed took the fight to the world number two, recovering from losing the first set to triumph 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 7-6 (7-5). Earlier, Federer put himself back in the mix at the end-of-season event with a 7-6 (7-2), 6-3 win against Italian debutant Matteo Berrettini in their round-robin clash.

Federer and Djokovic will face off on Thursday in a repeat of this year’s Wimbledon final to determine who else will progress from Group Bjorn Borg.

World number five Thiem blazed 50 winners in a sensational display of aggressive hitting to claim his second group win and seal his first semi-final in his fourth appearance.

Whatever his result against the already-eliminated Berrettini the Austrian will progress, but only victory will do for Djokovic and Federer as they clash for the 49th time and first since Djokovic won an epic Wimbledon final in July.

While Federer is trying to avoid only his second group stage exit in 17 appearances at the year-ending showpiece, the stakes will be even higher for Djokovic.

Defeat would not only halt his bid to equal Federer’s six titles but would also mean he cannot end the year ranked number one. Djokovic must reach at least the final to overhaul Rafael Nadal and equal Pete Sampras’s feat of finishing a year ranked number one on six occasions.

He will have to recover quickly after being stretched to breaking point by Thiem in a match lasting nearly three hours.

“We go head to head with Roger. Winner goes to semis. Loser doesn’t qualify. As simple as that,” Djokovic, who led 4-1 in the final-set tiebreaker against Thiem, told reporters.

Djokovic needed to play near flawless tennis in the first set — making just two unforced errors — to hold off the Austrian.

At 65 minutes, the first set alone was longer than Djokovic’s entire straight-sets win over Berrettini on Sunday.

But Thiem’s aggressive shot-making started paying dividends after that, as he broke Djokovic to take a 2-0 lead in the second set and then again to start the third.

However, Djokovic got back to level at 3-3 and then thought he had earned a match point in the 10th game of the third. With the score at 30-30, Thiem’s forehand was initially called wide - before a Hawk-Eye review showed that it had clipped the line.

Thiem held for 5-5 and then broke Djokovic at love - only for the Serb to break back immediately when the Austrian served for the match.

When Djokovic sent a forehand into the net to end it, Thiem fell onto his back on the court before Djokovic gave him a thumbs-up.

“It was maybe the best match I ever played,” said Thiem, a two-time French Open runner-up. “It was a real classic and epic match which will happen from time to time at these big tournaments. It had everything He was up; I was up. He was playing amazing points. Me, I was playing amazing points.”

Federer was pushed hard by Berrettini in the first set as the Italian powerhouse showed the kind of form that has propelled him into the world’s top 10.

But once Federer changed gear to claim 10 of 11 points to breeze through the first set tiebreak and break to love at the start of the second his 58th victory at the tournament was never in doubt. The 38-year-old’s thoughts then turned to Djokovic.

“We’ll find out, but I think it’s all flushed away from my side,” the 20-time Grand Slam winner said when asked if the memory of his Wimbledon loss to Djokovic was still bitter. “I think we both can take away some confidence from the match. Him obviously a lot. Me maybe a tad bit less. But at the end of the day, I didn’t hope I was never going to play him again. Actually, it’s good for me to play him again, and maybe that all helps to get a chance to get him back or whatever it is. Personally, excited to play Novak on Thursday.”

Published in Dawn, November 14th, 2019