The Swiss second seed was beaten 7-6(5) 7-5 and Djokovic later
saw off Britain's Andy Murray 7-5 6-2 to advance to the semi-finals
of a tournament he won last year.
Federer had narrowed the points gap on Djokovic in recent weeks but
defeat in Bercy halted his charge, while Japan's Kei Nishikori and
Raonic completed the line-up for the season-ending ATP World Tour
Finals which will be played in London from Nov. 9-16.
All is not lost for Federer, however, as the Swiss is able to boost
his points tally in the Davis Cup final against France.
"Milos played well. As I said, I always thought it was going to get
solved in London," Federer, who beat Raonic in the Wimbledon
semi-final this year, told a news conference.
"Whether I am number one at the end of this year or one or two weeks
later next year, it doesn't really matter. Novak seems to be fit,
anyway."
Seventh seed Raonic, who qualified for London after Nishikori beat
Spanish fourth seed Ferrer 3-6 7-6 (5) 6-4 to become the first Asian
singles player to qualify for the season-ending showpiece, served 21
aces to beat Federer for the first time in seven attempts.
Raonic will face Tomas Berdych in the semi-finals after the Czech
booked his place in London with a 6-7(4) 6-4 6-4 victory over South
African Kevin Anderson.
Djokovic, who edged a close first set against Murray before running
through the second, will take on sixth seed Nishikori.
Federer appeared relieved that he would have a little more time to
prepare for the Tour Finals.
"What this does is I will have a good preparation for London," he
said. "It's not that I didn't want to win here, but I knew it was
going to be tough from the start. I accept that."
The 17-times grand slam champion never found the key on Raonic's
huge serve and managed to engineer only one break point, in the 10th
game of the second set when the Canadian bombed down an ace to fend
off a set point.
A superb backhand pass in the next game allowed Raonic to break the
Federer serve and he closed out the match in style.
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"Considering all the circumstances around it, I think this was the
biggest win for me," Raonic told reporters.
Fifth-seeded Berdych, who won on his Bercy debut in 2005, became the
sixth player to secure his place in London.
After losing the opening set tiebreak, he found his range on serve
to level and recovered from a break down in the third set to finally
subdue Anderson and qualify for the year-ender for the fifth year in
succession.
THE RACE TO LONDON: POINTS
1 Novak Djokovic 9370 - qualified
2 Roger Federer 8700 - qualified
3 Rafa Nadal* 6835 - withdrew
4 Stan Wawrinka 4895 - qualified5 Kei Nishikori 4625 - qualified
6 Andy Murray 4475 - qualified
6 Tomas Berdych 4465 - qualified8 Milos Raonic 4200 - qualified9
Marin Cilic** 4150 - qualified
* Nadal has withdrawn due to appendicitis
** Cilic qualifies as U.S. Open champion
(Editing by Martyn Herman/Greg Stutchbury)
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