LONDON — At the start of the year there would have been long odds on Jack Sock, Grigor Dimitrov and David Goffin earning enough points to qualify for the ATP Finals, let alone reaching the last four.

Belgian Goffin completed that trio, however, on Friday when he recovered from a sluggish start to thrash Dominic Thiem 6-4, 6-1 and set up a daunting semifinal clash with six-times champion and overwhelming favorite Roger Federer.

It promises to be a momentous final week of the season for world number eight Goffin who this time next week will be shouldering Belgium's hopes of winning the Davis Cup for the first time in the final against France in Lille.

Before he can even start thinking about that he has to try to work out how to stop 19-times grand slam champion Federer on an indoor surface on which he appears almost unbeatable.

Goffin is 0-6 in previous meetings, most recently when he managed only three games in last month's Swiss Indoors as Federer charged towards an eighth title in Basel.

"I've never found a key to beat Roger," the 26-year-old Goffin, who beat a hobbling world No. 1 Rafa Nadal on Monday before being crushed by Dimitrov in his second round-robin match at London's O2 Arena, told reporters.

"Honestly, I don't know what to do tomorrow. But I'm going to try something, something different, something that I've never done in the past. I will try to do my best to play a better match than in Basel, for sure."

Goffin appeared to be feeling the effects of his mauling by Dimitrov as he meekly went 3-0 down against Thiem on Friday. But he suddenly came alive and won 15 points in a row to swing the match in his favor —breaking the error-strewn Austrian twice to take the opening set.

World No. 4 Thiem looked flat, perhaps the effect of a 27-tournament season, and his game crumbled in the second set. There was brief resistance in a 10-minute sixth game but Goffin held serve and claimed victory on his second match point with a searing backhand winner.

Goffin will face Federer in Saturday's first semifinal before Bulgarian Dimitrov takes on Sock. World No. 6 Dimitrov crushed alternate Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain 6-1, 6-1 on Friday for his third successive group victory. Busta replaced fellow Spaniard Nadal who withdrew after his round-robin defeat by Goffin.

Meanwhile, four-times ATP Finals doubles champions Bob and Mike Bryan bowed out of the tournament after a surprise 6-4, 6-4 defeat by alternates Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic on Friday.

The American twins, seeded fifth, finished their round-robin matches with only one win and their exit was confirmed later when Britain's Jamie Murray, together with Brazilian partner Bruno Soares, beat world No. 1 duo Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo.

Mike Bryan remains tied with Canadian Daniel Nestor on a record 1,056 doubles match wins in the professional era. Murray and Soares won 6-2, 6-4 ensuring there will be some British interest in the final weekend of the season.

Murray and Soares will face John Peers and Henri Kontinen in the semis, while Kubot and Melo take on Ryan Harrison and Michael Venus. — Reuters