Six-time champion Roger Federer went off to a slow start at the ATP World Tour Finals 2019 as he fell short of Dominic Thiem 7-5, 7-5 in the opening round-robin match of the Bjorn Borg group.

Dominic Thiem broke thrice in the match to get a straight-set victory over the Swiss maestro. However, the 38-year-old feels that he was not outplayed by the Austrian sensation and suggested the match was pretty even till the end of both the sets.

“I thought he played well. The start definitely didn’t help. That put me, you know, on the back foot a little bit,” said Roger Federer in the post-match press conference. “But I recovered well, and I thought after that the match was actually pretty even for a long period of time. I had my chances. I didn’t feel like I was outplayed or anything.”

The 20-time Grand Slam champion further added: “Just maybe that first-round hiccups a little bit, not hitting your spots on the serve when you need to, getting into trouble early in the service games which maybe doesn’t happen later on in the tournament.”

Roger Federer recovered quickly from being broken in the first game of the match before Dominic Thiem broke him again in the 11th game and served out the set 7-5.

The Basel native earned a chance to break early in the second set but he squandered the opportunity as the two held their serves until the 11th game again, when the 26-year-old broke Federer’s serve to love.

However, Thiem floundered while serving for the match as Federer had the chance to get a rebreak and come back in the match but the No.5 seed saved two breakpoints to take the set 7-5 and sealed the match on his second match point.

Roger Federer admitted that Thiem held his nerves at the crucial moments of the match. He said: “I thought also Dominic saved himself real well when he had to, so I thought he played a tough first-round performance today, and my game was probably just not good enough, and the start didn’t help.”

Dominic Thiem, who had also defeated Federer at the Madrid Masters and in the Indian Wells Masters final this year but lost to him in the group stage at last year’s ATP Finals, explained that defeating the Swiss star is even better in the indoors.

“In general, it’s a very nice victory for me. I mean, every time I play against him is a big honor. Beating him is even better, and especially on this surface indoors, where he’s feeling well usually,” Thiem said.

For Roger Federer, the defeat means there’s no room for another slip-up in his next two round-robin matches, against the defending runner-up Novak Djokovic and debutant Matteo Berrettini. The six-time champion will probably have to win both in order to reach the semifinals. The only time Federer has failed to progress to the knockout stages was in 2008.