Federer wary of Nishikori challenge in Basle

By Bill Scott Nov 5, 2011, 19:42 GMT

Basle, Switzerland - Roger Federer brings experience to the court as he bids for a fifth home title at the Swiss Indoors on Sunday against talented Japanese youngster Kei Nishikori.

The Swiss third seed, who is defending the home trophy, notched his tenth victory against just one loss over Beijing Olympic doubles gold medal partner Stanislas Wawrinka 7-6 (7-5), 6-2,

The 32nd-ranked Nishikori slammed injured top seed Novak Djokovic 2-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-0, with the Serb now looking extremely likely to miss next week's Paris Masters, last event of the regular season.

With Czech Tomas Berdych qualifying into the sixth of eight positions for the November 20-27 year-end event in London, Paris will be a fight for the last two places in the field at the World Tour Finals.

Federer and Nishikori have never played, though the Swiss ironically had a warm-up hit with the Asian ace before the Djokovic semi-final.

'I warmed him up today, and I hit with him five years ago in Miami,' said Federer, who has only one 2011 title from Doha at the start of the year. 'I know he's very talented with a lot of potential.

''He's got great shots and has been on fire for the past month. He's got a quick arm as well. I've got to go out there and take advantage of my chances.'

Nishikori will be playing his second final of 2011 after losing in Houston in April.

Nishikori earned the biggest win of his career in two and a quarter hours with five breaks of Djokovic, who was playing this week for the first time after taking six weeks off to cure a back problem.

Nishikori, a Shanghai semi-finalist last month claimed his only career title in 2008 in Florida as a teenager.

Djokovic was beaten in only his fourth match of the season, playing in pain with the injury which he aggravated at the start of the week.

Djokovic still stands 67-4 in 2011 with 10 titles.

Djokovic said he's been having trouble since the start of the week with his shoulder, which has gone from bad to worse.

'It was a shock to the body,' he said of his first win on Tuesday which took more than two hours and proved to be a huge physical test. 'Competition is different to practise. I may have forced things too much.

'I was feeling afraid of the shoulder and what might happen to it,. My rhythm on serve has been completely off.

'I could barely serve for much of the match, I was in pain. My shoulder is very bad, we won't even talk about the third set. I have a lot of pain in the body from the competition this week. I hope I can be ready for Paris.

'I don't think I'll be able to train for the next few days, but I think I'll go straight there.'

The shoulder was the same one which bothered him in the August Cincinnati final with Andy Murray, which the Serb had to quit in the second set.

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