ATP Finals: David Goffin thrashes Dominic Thiem to reach semi-finals in London

Media caption,

Goffin thrashes Thiem to reach semi-final

ATP Finals

Venue: The 02 Arena, London Dates: 12-19 November

Coverage: Watch live on BBC Two, Red Button, BBC Sport website and mobile app, listen on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra and follow text updates online.

Belgian seventh seed David Goffin completed the semi-final line-up at the ATP Finals with victory over Austrian fourth seed Dominic Thiem in London.

Goffin won 6-4 6-1 to secure second place in the Pete Sampras Group and set up a semi-final against Roger Federer at 14:00 GMT on Saturday.

"It will be a tough match, so nice to play a semi against him," said Goffin.

Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov will face American Jack Sock in Saturday's other last-four contest at 20:00.

Dimitrov beat Pablo Carreno Busta 6-1 6-1 in the last of the round-robin matches on Friday, but with the qualification scenario settled they were only playing for 200 ranking points - and the £145,000 prize money for a match win.

'It's never easy to play against a friend'

David Goffin and Dominic ThiemImage source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Goffin won 18 out of 19 points as he dominated the latter stages of the first set

Fourth seed Thiem produced a desperately disappointing performance with the prize of a semi-final place at the season finale on offer.

He began in suitably focused fashion, winning a punishing 32-stroke rally on his way to establishing a 3-0 lead, but Goffin would win 12 of the next 14 games.

A double-fault from the Austrian handed the break back in game five, one of 15 straight points Thiem conceded as he started to spray errors from the baseline.

There was a chance to re-establish himself in the set with Goffin serving for it at 30-30, but Thiem leaked a forehand pass wide and the set was gone when Goffin slammed a forehand winner down the line.

After a brief delay for attention to a bloodied knee, Thiem continued to struggle badly in the second set.

By the time he fired a backhand wide to miss a third break point at 4-1 down, he had racked up 22 unforced errors.

Goffin remained steady and patient, coming through that game in 11 minutes for a 5-1 lead and closing out the victory with a backhand winner after an unexpectedly swift 71 minutes.

"It was a pity to play against Dominic, he is such a good friend and a nice guy, it's never easy to play against a friend," said Goffin.

"It was tough, I was focused, I knew I had to stay calm and be ready for a tough battle. At the end I was happy with the way I managed the match."

It was an impressive response from the Belgian, who beat a struggling Rafael Nadal in his opening match before taking just two games against a rampant Dimitrov.

"After the first match against Rafael I wasted so much energy, I was not ready for Grigor, but I had a good rest yesterday and was ready for today, and I hope I can do the same for the semi-finals," added Goffin.

Follow tennis with the BBC

Related internet links

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.