David Goffin ousts ATP Finals favorite Federer

David Goffin surprised his childhood idol, Roger Federer, clinching his spot in the final of the ATP Finals. 

The finals at the ATP World tour event are shaping up to be anything but expected. Despite dominating all year long and being the tennis story of the year, neither Rafael Nadal nor Roger Federer will be in the final. We now know that one of the finalists will be Belgian’s David Goffin, a consistent top-10 player who has always had difficulty breaking through the Nadal-Federer layer at the top. That is no longer the case.

Roger Federer has won the ATP Finals a record six times.

David Goffin has lost to the Swiss player six times.

Both stats have now been turned on their heads. Federer leaves London without a seventh title and Goffin has achieved his first win over his idol, winning the semifinal clash with nerveless precision, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4. He is the only player to defeat both Rafa Nadal and Fed in the same tournament all year long. Not bad for a player who had to sit out part of the summer due to a freak accident that injured his ankle at the French Open earlier this year.

Goffin, who employs a beautiful, fast game that stuns when he is on, looks like a tennis Harry Potter. He’s so fast he’s been called a “wizard” and his performance at the O2 arena against the world No. 2 was as magical and rapid as ever. The world No. 8 broke into the top 20 two years ago, winning two titles in 2015 and two more this year. But he’s always been overshadowed by legends Federer and Nadal, and to a degree, Alexander Zverev. He’s been part of a middle layer of tennis players in their mid-twenties — including Grigor Dimitrov, Domic Thiem, Milos Raonic, and Kei Nishikori — who have been on the scene, always close, but never quite achieving the top prizes. However, this year has been a breakthrough for the 26-year-old.

David Goffin played a fantastic clay court game this spring, and came close to defeating Rafa in the Madrid Masters 1000 event, until a bad call lead to his unraveling. He progressed into the French Open, but got his ankle caught in the tarp, forcing him to retire, and he took off for the entire grass season. He managed to bounce back after the Grand Slams during the Asian hard court period, winning his two titles for the year in China and Japan. He displayed brilliant form against Rafa and now Fed, showing everyone why he’s still a dangerous player in the sport.

“But I will try, like I said, to do my best to find some solutions, try to play my game, be aggressive,” Goffin said before the match.

Admitting he wasn’t sure how he could beat the 19-time Grand Slam champion, looking as if that was the case in the first set loss, he found consistency and serve confidence by the second set, unearthing the mental strength to capitalize on break points throughout the second and third sets.

“I’ve never found a key to beat Roger,” admitted Goffin, when discussing his prep for the match. “Honestly, I don’t know what to do tomorrow. But I’m going to try something, something different, something that I’ve never done in the past.”

It looks like he found the something that made all the difference.

David Goffin was the first Belgian to qualify for the ATP end-of-year event, and now he’s the first to make the final as well. The final takes place on Sunday.