Roger Federer of Switzerland celebrates winning his match against Novak Djokovic of Serbia on Tuesday night.


Reuters/London


With Roger Federer playing like the boss of the courts at the World Tour Finals, there is no way the Swiss was going to let his match seating position be “controlled” by the mere placement of a towel.
That was the case when the 17-time grand slam winner took to the court at the O2 arena on Tuesday night for what proved to be a comfortable 7-5, 6-2 win over Novak Djokovic which ended several win streaks for this season’s runaway world number one to put the Swiss into the weekend semi-finals.
Federer apparently sat in a char designated for Djokovic but laughed off the situation later, saying that he was first onto the court during walk-on and sat in the chair he preferred - which happened to be marked by a tournament-monogrammed towel with Djokovic’s name on it.
“OK a towel doesn’t mean much to me, to be quite honest. I’m not going to be pushed by a towel. I sat on that chair when I walked out against Tomas (Berdych, his first opponent this week).
“I said, I’d like to sit here again. I walked out first. Usually the guy who walks out first decides which side he wants to sit on.
“That’s the rules to me, not a towel, to be quite honest. Maybe to you a towel matters more. To me a towel is to take a shower with.”
Federer’s win over the tournament point man was a huge boost to the 34-year-old.
“I know it’s a big win, it could help me for what’s to come in this tournament. It’s going to give me a lot of confidence. It’s going to help me for next year.
“It’s always good beating Novak or any top player moving forward.
“Novak is still the favourite of the tournament, he should make his way to the semis somehow. I don’t know exactly what he needs. And he’ll be the favourite in that probably, too, with the year he’s had.
“He’s far from gone. The way I know Novak, he’s going to find a way to be tougher to beat from now on. It was important to take advantage of the fact he was not playing so well today, and for me to come out stronger than I did against Berdych.
“I didn’t feel great when I came out on court, but I’m starting to serve, let’s just see how it goes.”