Roger Federer is targeting good performances in Basle and Paris after his hopes of qualifying for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals were dealt a blow at the Shanghai Masters.
The Swiss suffered his latest disappointing defeat in a difficult season as Gael Monfils triumphed 6-4 6-7 (5/7) 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals.
Federer is still in a decent position to make the World Tour Finals, especially given Andy Murray’s withdrawal on Wednesday, but it could well go down to the Paris Masters next month.
Asked about Murray’s absence, Federer said on atpworldtour.com: “I hope I don’t have to rely on it. If I have to, I have to. But that’s not really what I want.
“I’m just going to focus on trying to play well. I’m just going to try to have a good tournament in Basle and Paris. In the end, if I get the invite, I’ll be there.”
The 32-year-old battled very hard, showing a lot more emotion than usual, but it was not enough to get past Monfils. Things went wrong from the start for Federer, who had his serve broken in the first game and went on to lose the opening set.
The second set seemed to be in Monfils’ grasp, but Federer recovered from a break down at 3-4 and then won four points in a row from 3-5 in the tie-break.
He was swiftly behind in the decider too, and this time he could not mount a comeback. He had break points to get to 3-4 but they went begging and Monfils served out to love for only his second win in eight matches against Federer.
Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal stayed on course for another final clash.
Djokovic eased past Fabio Fognini 6-3 6-3 to set up a meeting with Monfils, while new world No 1 Nadal survived a close second set to defeat Carlos Berlocq 6-1 7-6 (7/5).