David Goffin is into the last four of the ATP Finals; to go any further he will have to do something he has never done before: beat Roger Federer.
Seventh-seeded Goffin on Friday defeated Dominic Thiem 6-4, 6-1 at London’s O2 Arena to set up a semi-final meeting with Federer.
From 0-3, 0-15 down in the opening set, Goffin won 15 consecutive points to take control of the match and never looked back.
Photo: AP
“I’ve never found a key to beat Roger,” said Goffin, who has lost all of his six meetings with the 19-time Grand Slam champion. “Honestly, I don’t know what to do tomorrow, but I’m going to try something, something different, something that I’ve never done in the past.”
The victory took Goffin to 2-1 in the round-robin stage of the elite season-ending tournament after a win over Rafael Nadal and defeat to Grigor Dimitrov, who was to meet Jack Sock in the other semi-final yesterday.
Dimitrov defeated Pablo Carreno Busta 6-1, 6-1 in the late match to become the first player to win all three round-robin matches on debut since Andy Murray in 2008.
Unlike during his 74-minute thrashing by Dimitrov on Wednesday, Goffin was able to recover from a slow start.
Thiem produced some blistering ground strokes to break in the second game of the match and held for a 3-0 lead, but from there his game disintegrated.
“Well, I had a very, very good start obviously,” Thiem said. “Again, some very bad mistakes. I let him back into the game. Somehow after the 3-0, I lost it until the end.”
When Thiem finally ended his opponent’s run of five straight games, Goffin kept his composure to serve out the set. He then received treatment on his left knee, but it did not seem to help.
The Austrian was broken again in the third game of the second set and then twice more as Goffin cruised to victory.
Goffin was far from faultless himself, with both players’ unforced error totals doubling their winner counts.
However, in the major moments Goffin was able to keep his game under control, taking five of his seven break point opportunities. Thiem was wasteful, completing just one of his six.
“As soon as I came back at 3-3 with a good service game, I knew that he was struggling a little bit with his ground strokes,” Goffin said. “He was hitting too hard, maybe a little bit. He lost his timing in his backhands. He started to think about how to hit the ball.”
Goffin is making his full debut at the event, having stepped in as an alternate for one match last year.
Reaching the semis in London is the latest step in a groundbreaking season for the Belgian. He broke into the top 10 for the first time in February and reached a career high No. 8 ranking earlier earlier this month.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but