ATP Finals

Nadal and Djokovic lose semi-finals

Medvedev's first career victory over the 20-times Grand Slam champion sent him through to a final showdown against Dominic Thiem who earlier beat Novak Djokovic in another titanic clash.

The 24-year-old Medvedev reached the semi-finals as the only player to post a 100% record in his group, including a superb defeat of Djokovic.

Thiem will attempt to go one better than last year when he lost to Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final.

Dominic Thiem downs world number 2 Rafa Nadal

World number three Thiem saved a couple of set points in the first tiebreak before whipping away a forehand to take an opening set in which there was barely anything between the two.

Spaniard Nadal, bidding to win the only big title to elude him, engineered the first break of the match at 3-3 in the second set only for Thiem to reply in stunning fashion.

Nadal was on the brink of defeat when he slipped 0-40 behind serving at 4-5 after a wayward smash, but the 20-time Grand Slam champion dug himself out of a hole, saving three match points.

Federer braced for ATP Finals fight

Austrian Thiem completed a hat-trick of wins over the 20-time grand slam champion in 2019 with a 7-5 7-5 victory on the opening day in London.

Federer now faces a tough task to advance from Group Bjorn Borg, which also contains Novak Djokovic and Matteo Berrettini.

The 38-year-old committed 30 unenforced errors and won 11 of 22 points on his second serve in an uneven showing at the O2 Arena on Sunday.

"I thought he played well. The start definitely didn't help. That put me on the back foot a little bit," Federer said.

Djokovic, Federer drawn together

The pair have won 36 grand slams between them and triumphed at the season-ending tournament a collective 11 times, with Federer leading that head-to-head tally by one.

Joining the Swiss maestro and Djokovic in Bjorn Borg Group will be Dominic Thiem and Matteo Berrettini.