Berdych focused on Nishikori

Tomas Berdych quickly turned his focus to Kei Nishikori at the ATP World Tour Finals, facing an uphill battle to reach the semi-finals.

The Czech suffered a 6-4 6-2 loss to Roger Federer on Sunday, leaving him with a 0-1 win-loss record in Group Stan Smith.

Berdych needs a turnaround in form if he is to reach the semi-finals, but his attentions remain on his next opponent – Nishikori – with his group campaign finishing against Novak Djokovic.

“The tournament is quite long. It consists of at least three matches in the group,” he said.

“I lost one, and now I just need to refocus and get better for my next match, then just keep doing the same thing back and forth.

“Now I’m definitely not thinking about the match with Novak.”

Berdych and Nishikori have met just four times – the Japanese right-hander winning three of those – but the last clash was in 2012.

The 30-year-old Berdych said he had practiced often enough with Nishikori to know what to expect.

“I think this is tennis today,” he said.

“You’re going to get some players that you almost play week by week, you play them really very often over one or two years. Then there is a player that, you know, you didn’t face for a long time.

“I think that’s the case of playing with Kei. But, you know, I have practiced a lot with him. It’s not going to be really unknown to play him after a long time.

“What can I expect from that? Definitely it’s going to be a different match than today. I mean, it’s a completely different player with a different style of game.

“I’m just going to need to get myself ready, prepared, try to brush this match off from my head and get ready for the next one, which is with Kei. Just be ready and be strong.”