Murray raced into a 4-2 lead as he capitalised on errors from the Swiss, but the number two seed made two errors of his own to bring Wawrinka back into the game.
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Wawrinka won a tight first-set on a tie-break before going up a double break in the second set. He started slicing his serves a little wider, putting less of his first serves in play but setting himself up well for the rallies.
For with all the permutations that become possible in a round-robin format between the best eight players in the world, it is a rare and exciting occasion indeed for qualification into the semis to come down to a knock-out bout, and in the very last match of the round-robin phase.
Federer won that meeting in three sets after saving four match points, but the game is mostly remembered for reports of a heated post-match row between the players which was allegedly sparked by Federer’s wife Mirka heckling Wawrinka and calling him a “crybaby”.
Djokovic will face Nadal having benefited from an extra day of rest due to the luck of the draw, which leaves the Spaniard needing to potentially play a pool match, semi-final and final in three successive days. The world No 1 then played one of his worst matches of the year in losing to Federer and gave a patchy performance in beating Tomas Berdych. “So that’s something that I would imagine would come back fairly quickly”.
As he exited the O2 Arena, handing his crippled racket to a grateful fan, Murray has much to think about ahead of next weekend’s Davis Cup Final in Ghent, in which he has invested so much emotional and physical energy. In the two-hour and 37-minute match, the world number five fought back from a set down to win 6-7 (2-7) 6-3 6-4.
He said: “If it itches too much, I’ll take it off. If my girls can’t stand it, I’ll take it off. If I look in the mirror and I don’t like it, I’ll take it off. Obviously, that was an important point in the match”, he said.
Djokovic and Nadal have played each other more times than any other two players, and Djokovic will look to tie their head-to-head for the first time at 23-23.
Nadal slumped to 10th in the world rankings this year after a crisis of confidence and form, but since a third-round defeat at the US Open by Italian Fabio Fognini he has rediscovered his old spark. “I don’t deserve a vacation this year”, Nadal told reporters when asked about his off-season plans. “I finish the season the way that I really want to start the next one”.
“For me, today was another opportunity to compete”.
Murray will team up with Brazilian Bruno Soares next year looking to build on the best season of his career, which was capped by grand slam final appearances at Wimbledon and the US Open. Ferrer then saved five break points in the opening game of the third set before holding.
“I didn’t find it hard not thinking about the Davis Cup Final, to be honest”, he said.
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“I think he’s going to get stronger”. “This year I have been more anxious about myself than the opponents for a lot of matches”, he said.
