Sefanos Tsitsipas overcomes Roger Federer to qualify for ATP World Tour Finals

Stefanos Tsitsipas defeated Roger Federer in the semifinals of the ATP Tour Finals on Saturday evening. The Swiss, who was clearly off his rhythm lost the match in straight sets 6-3, 6-4. Tsitsipas, on the other hand, did not crack under pressure and rocketed into the finals in his debut appearance at the tournament. 

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'Dreams do come true'

Federer, who came off a solid victory over rival Novak Djokovic on Thursday to qualify for the final four, was not able to repeat the performance 48 hours later. In the match, he could not convert 12 breakpoints and made a total of 29 unforced errors. Tsitsipas broke Federer right in the Swiss' first service and was able to see through the set with relative ease, except the final game, which went on for more than 10 minutes and the Greek international had to dig in deep to close the set. 

The second set began in a similar fashion. Although Federer could hold his first serve, he was not able to defend for long and the Greek youngster broke his serve again in the second set. After that, there was no looking back for Tsitsipas and he went on to seal his spot in the finals of the high profile tournament. Although Tsitsipas had played a gruelling match lasting 2 hours and 52 minutes against world number one Rafael Nadal just 24 hours ago, he was physically and mentally sharp and his body language was positive throughout Saturday's semifinal. 

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After the match, Tsitsipas said, "I remember myself being one of these kids here, watching the event and… I could never picture myself standing here, but it did happen. Dreams do come true. There is so much for me to learn from all these players. Roger, as well, I grew up watching Roger as a kid, watching him here at the Nitto ATP Finals, watching him at Wimbledon, playing [tour-level] finals, and wished I could step out on the court one day and face him. Today, I'm here, living the dream.”

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Through the game, the crowd at O2 arena in London mostly backed Federer, encouraging him with 'Let's Go Roger!' chants. The support for him was evident in the showdown against Novak Djokovic as well. However, Federer collapsed on Saturday just the way his opponent did on Thursday, and missed out on moving a step closer to securing a historic seventh ATP Finals title. 

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