Alexander Zverev still in ATP Finals contention despite three-set defeat to old master Roger Federer

Federer's victory over Zverev at the ATP Finals felt like a reinforcement of the old guard’s hold over the younger generation - but do not try telling that to the 20-year-old German

Federer had enough in the tank to beat Zverev in three on Tuesday night (Getty)

If Roger Federer’s victory over Alexander Zverev here at the Nitto ATP Finals felt like a reinforcement of the old guard’s hold over the younger generation, do not try telling that to the 20-year-old German.

“I’ve played Roger six times now and we’re 3-3, if you count our Hopman Cup match,” Zverev pointed out after his 7-6, 5-7, 6-1 defeat. “I still have a very decent chance of being in the semi-finals.”

The format of this year-end competition is such that players can lose one – and sometimes even two – of their three round-robin matches and still win the title. In Federer’s last appearance here in 2015 the Swiss beat Novak Djokovic in the group phase and then lost to him in the final.

Federer has already secured his place in Saturday’s semi-finals and Zverev will join him there if he wins his concluding round-robin match against Jack Sock on Thursday evening. Indeed there is every possibility of a Federer-Zverev final on Sunday, which would provide a perfect ending to a season which has been a triumph for players at both ends of the age spectrum.

While 31-year-old Rafael Nadal and 36-year-old Federer, world No 1 and No 2 respectively, have shared the year’s four Grand Slam titles, younger players have been making their mark in a way that hardly seemed possible until recently as the next generation struggled to make an impression on their elders.

Two years ago, when Chris Kermode, the head of the Association of Tennis Professionals, was making his initial plans for last week’s inaugural NextGen Finals, which brought together the season’s most successful 21-and-under players, he was expecting most of them to be ranked between No 200 and No 300 in the world. Instead the lowest ranked player who qualified for the event was Daniil Medvedev, the world No 65.

It has been quite a year for young guns like Andrey Rublev, a 20-year-old Russian, and Denis Shapovalov, an 18-year-old Canadian. Rublev came through qualifying at the year’s first three Grand Slam events and became the youngest man to reach the quarter-finals of the US Open for 16 years, while Shapovalov climbed 199 places in the world rankings and made the fourth round at Flushing Meadows and the semi-finals in Montreal, where he beat Nadal and Juan Martin del Potro.

The Next Gen Finals proved to be incredibly successful (Getty)

However, it is Zverev who has towered above all his young rivals, both physically and metaphorically. The 6ft 6in German, who is already up to No 3 in the world rankings, became the youngest winner of a Masters Series title for 10 years when he beat Djokovic in the final in Rome in May and added another when he beat Federer in the Montreal final in August. He has won five titles in total this year.

Zverev was the first player to qualify for the NextGen Finals. Such was his enthusiasm for the event and his pride at being part of the sport’s new wave that he had to be persuaded to pull out of it in order to focus his attention on this week. Even so, he still insisted on playing an exhibition match in Milan in support of the tournament.

Federer has seen close up how good the German can be. Zverev beat him on grass at Halle last year, in Perth in January at the Hopman Cup exhibition event and in Montreal this summer, though the Swiss hurt his back during the latter match.

Zverev beat Federer in Montreal (Getty)

"I like what I'm seeing with Sascha,” Federer said after his victory here. “I see somebody who is working towards the future. Of course it’s really important right now to have success. He had that with two massive wins in Rome and Montreal. That’s going to protect his season anyway. The rest is all a sort of bonus.

“What I like to see is I feel like [his team are] working towards how he could be playing when he’s 23, 24 years old in terms of fitness, planning, organisation, all these things. I think that’s nice to see.

“Now, the future? It seems like the young guys in general need a bit more time to break through these days, even though I’m really happy to see that there are the likes of Shapovalov or Nick [Kyrgios], now also Zverev, making the move early, like Rafa, Andy [Murray], Novak and Lleyton [Hewitt} did. They were such great teenagers.”

Federer has been impressed with the young German's rise (Getty)

He added: “What I like about Zverev is he's got the full package. He's already No 3 in the world. I think he's going to leave the World Tour Finals, regardless if he qualifies for the semis or not, with a lot of information.

“I think the last six months of the season gave him everything he needs to work forward to. Then, of course, he's only going to get stronger from here. That should be very encouraging for him and his team.”

The old master, nevertheless, taught his young opponent a lesson or two. While Federer rode his luck at times, particularly when Zverev let the first set tie-break slip away, the Swiss demonstrated yet again how much he thinks about the game and how to beat particular opponents. By taking the pace off the ball with his sliced backhands, Federer exposed some frailties in Zverev’s forehand.

“I think I was able to read his forehand this time better than in Montreal, where he had a lot of winners, forehand and backhand,” Federer said afterwards. “I was able to stay the course and use my slice quite effectively, then try with variation to go into his forehand.”

Although Zverev, ultimately, was unable to do anything about it, the German knew what was going on. “I think people have realised that if you go fast to my backhand with a lot of spin I quite like it, so maybe people are starting to change it up, go a little bit more with the slice,” the German said.

Besides, he knows there is no shame in losing to Federer. “He's the best player of all time,” Zverev said. “He's always going to find a way to try to disturb your rhythm a little bit and try to win.”