Dominic Thiem kept alive his hopes of reaching the last four at the ATP Finals on Thursday, beating Kei Nishikori 6-1, 6-4 before pinning his hopes on a comprehensive win for Kevin Anderson over Roger Federer. Coming into his final Lleyton Hewitt Group match, Thiem knew anything other than a straight-sets win would end his ambitions of reaching the semi-finals at London's O2 Arena.

The sixth seed must now wait for the result of the later encounter between Anderson and Federer to discover if he will advance. If Anderson defeats six-time champion Federer in straight sets, the runner-up spot in the group will be decided by the percentage of games won between Federer, Nishikori and Thiem. As a result of Thiem's straight-sets win, South Africa's Anderson has now qualified for the semi-finals. "I just went into that match and wanted to show my real self again basically because two days ago was really bad," said Thiem, who lost in straight sets to both Anderson and Federer in his first two round-robin matches.