Roger Federer vs Dominic Thiem: ATP Finals 2018 tennis live stream, TV guide & start time

Roger Federer will look to bounce back after a shock defeat to Nishikori as he takes on Dominic Thiem who holds a 2-1 head-to-head record over the Swiss.

Second seed Roger Federer takes on sixth seed Dominic Thiem in their second match of the Round Robin stage of the ATP Finals 2018 at the O2 Arena in London.

When does the match start and how to watch it live

The Lleyton Hewitt group match between Federer and Thiem will not start before 8 pm local time, 12:30 am IST (Wednesday).

Sony ESPN and Sony ESPN HD will provide live television coverage of the match in India. The live stream will be available on Sony Liv.

Federer vs Thiem preview

Both men are coming into the match on the back of first-round defeats. Federer faced a defeat against Kei Nishikori for the first time since March 2014 in Miami.

World number 3 Federer has been vocal about his struggles in finding a practice court that matches the speed of the court of the O2 Arena.

"Practice was a bit all over the place, practicing at Queen's, practicing on outside courts here and at Centre as well. So it was not always the same conditions", he said after Sunday's match.

Federer also called off his practice before his match against Thiem who interestingly holds a 2-1 head-to-head advantage over the Swiss with all their three previous encounters coming in 2016.

Speaking to the media about his match against Thiem following his defeat on the opening day, Federer admitted that he needed to play better than he did on the night in order to win his next match.

"We haven't played in a while," Federer said. "I haven't thought about the match, to be honest. I haven't had enough time. I wasn't even thinking who I'm going to play next. I just know I need to do better than today. That's pretty much it."

Roger Federer — Federer reacts following his defeat to Nishikori in the ATP Finals 2018Julian Finney/Getty Images

Meanwhile, Thiem will take confidence from Federer's patchy form this season since winning the Australian Open.

The Austrian is known to possess one of the meanest serves in the game. He is also known for his construction of points using prolonged, aggressive baseline play.

Thiem, a rare modern-day one-handed backhand player much akin to Federer, will take heart from his victory against the 99-time tour-level titlist in their last meeting.

But the world number 8 feels that he needs to start better than he did against Kevin Anderson in order to repeat his heroics from Stuttgart 2016.

"I didn't have a good start. I was in trouble almost every service game. So the first set was not really good", Thiem said to the media.

Roger Federer has only once in his career lost two matches in a single ATP World Tour Finals – in 2008 – which was the only occasion wherein he didn't reach the semi-final in his 15 previous appearances.

ATP Finals 2018: TV Guide