While Murray, who won 68 matches this season before the World Tour Finals, started off with a 6-4, 6-4 dismissal of David Ferrer, Wawrinka put up a listless performance in his 3-6, 2-6 defeat to Rafael Nadal.
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Andy Murray showed no signs of rustiness on hard courts as he began his campaign at the ATP World Tour Finals with a 6-4 6-4 victory over David Ferrer.
Rafael Nadal traveled to London to play in the ATP World Tour Finals seeking redemption in a year gone horribly wrong.
Murray heads to Belgium next week for Great Britain’s first Davis Cup final since 1978.
Nadal will play Novak Djokovic in the semifinals of the year-end championships, with Roger Federer a potential final-round opponent for the victor. 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. “Maybe I’ll think of Santa and keep it. It’s around the corner”.
Assuming Nadal can recover well enough physically, the contest against Djokovic could be their closest meeting this year – the 28-year-old defending champion has won all seven sets in the three matches they’ve contested in 2015. Consistency though has been more a Federer strong suit this week and I think in the end that will see him march on without the aid of Mirka this time.
Even when his ranking fell to 10th in June, the former No. 1 never doubted that he would qualify among the top eight, he has said, although not arrogantly, for that is not his way.
But Ferrer hasn’t been able to win the big points this tournament – the 33-year-old led Wawrinka 5-2 in the first set Wednesday prior to succumbing 7-5 6-2 – and the trend continued. The conditions are normally quite good for me.
Asked yesterday how he planned to maintain his present level throughout the off-season, Nadal replied: “I don’t deserve a vacation this year”.
Ferrer lost his first two group matches to fall out of contention and looked ready for a holiday when he dropped his first two service games to hand Nadal a 3-0 lead in the first set.
The impossible seemed possible when he had two chances to get back to 5-5 but he could not take either and his 30th unforced error was one too many. But even in the last game, as well, a couple of backhands, one in the middle of the net on a deuce point, and match point, another simple backhand into the tramlines.
“I’m going to have a couple of days off after here, then I have a charity event for my foundation”. I played all the tournaments that I wanted to play. Wawrinka has won two Grand Slams and become an elite player while Murray has struggled with injuries and had to work his way back to the top.
Elsewhere in the Spanish La Liga, Real Sociedad are set to play Sevilla, Espanyol battle it out with Malaga, Valencia take on Las Palmas at MestaYa, and Deportivo La Coruna will host Celta Vigo.
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However, at 5-5 a number of bad mistakes enabled Djokovic to break again and naturally the world’s best player sent down a number of unplayable serves to seal his place in the last four.
