Roger Federer will be hoping for a confidence boosting win over Rafael Nadal in the third place playoff at the Mubadala World Tennis Championships on Saturday.
It's hard to remember the last time Federer and Nadal both suffered crushing defeats on the same day but that was the case as day two proved a huge anti-climax for the thousands of fans packing the Centre Court arena in Abu Dhabi.
Federer was destroyed 6-2, 6-1 by Novak Djokovic and afterwards the Swiss admitted he could not remember the last time he'd lost by such a scoreline.
"It's surprising when it goes quick and you are on the losing side. It's not so comfortable sometimes," Federer said. "You try hard and try different things and it's not working. He was playing really well. Unfortunately, it was a short-lived match but we know he is a very good front-runner. He took the lead in both sets quite early and that made it difficult because conditions were pretty quick and my game was not good enough today to make it more competitive."
Federer lost to Nadal in two tiebreaks in the final last year but he should have a decent chance at claiming revenge as the Spaniard's shoulder is still far from 100% .
And after losing 6-3, 6-2 to David Ferrer, Nadal was playing down his chances for Saturday. "I knew before coming here that I was not ready to win a match against Ferrer, not to win a match against Djokovic or Federer," he said. "But I am ready to spend hours on court without risk of injury. That is the most important thing. I need this transition, hours of practice."
Prediction: Federer in two.
