Roger Federer continues to be far from convincing but did enough in his second round-robin match today, beating Nikolay Davydenko 6-4, 6-3 to keep himself in contention for his fourth Tennis Masters Cup success in the last six years. The shock waves of the world No1's opening defeat had barely subsided but, unlike Chile's Fernando González, the Russian did not have the firepower to exploit Federer's current crisis of confidence.
It may be a minor crisis in the general scheme of a tennis year that has seen Federer win a further three slam titles, taking his total to 12, and maintain his position at the head of the rankings for the fourth successive year, yet he is certainly not playing with his normal free-flowing and fluent skills.
Rafael Nadal suggested earlier this week that this is the most difficult tournament of the year, which engendered a few disbelieving looks. But the truth is that all the players are tired, and none of them want to let themselves down against their fellow top players. "Here you lose and you play another top 10 guy," said Federer. "This was a top-four guy so it doesn't get any easier."
Davydenko, who has been under intense pressure off the court, said he, too, was feeling fatigue after a difficult few months. "I fly to the Maldives on Sunday for one week for a rest," he said. "The end of the season I am really tired physically and mentally. I just want to prepare for next season to be as fit as possible to play against Federer or Nadal."
Defeats by Argentina's David Nalbandian in the Madrid and Paris Masters in recent weeks have sown a few rare seeds of doubt in Federer's mind, while the slowing down of the indoor courts have not done him any favours. He may have to take a few more risks at the net, although he continues to believe that he can beat almost everybody from the baseline, if not three yards behind it, as was the case in France and Spain.
The court in the Qi Zhong state-of-the-art stadium appears to have struck a happy medium, with González believing it has allowed opportunities to attack, so it may be that Federer may simply have to take a few more risks. But that demands confidence. "Anything can happen in the men's game," said Federer. "You're a little bit off, you're a little bit tired, you'll lose right away. But I create myself many, many opportunities so eventually I'll break through and I'll break their will."
Federer, not one of the great mutterers, was nevertheless mouthing words of annoyance with himself midway through the opening set. Davydenko had, like González prior to Monday, never beaten the Swiss and, when he was broken to go 5-3 down, it appeared this was going to be another routine defeat. Then Federer, serving for the match, dropped his own serve.
It was something he would repeat in the second set, albeit when 5-1 up, and it again highlighted those small doubts that have, for the moment, entered his head.
In the second match on court, Andy Roddick became the first man to reach the semi-finals with a comfortable 6-1, 6-4 win over Gonzalez. The Chilean was unable to rediscover the form that he showed during his upset victory over Federer, the match lasting only 65 minutes as Roddick advanced to the last four for the third time in four appearances.