But the haircut provided no advantage, with Murray losing the first set 6-4 and eventually losing to Nadal in straight sets (6-4 6-1).
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The trend for singles matches this week has been for a competitive first set to be followed by a whitewash of a second, but Nishikori took the attack to Federer to retrieve the break and then benefited from his opponent’s lapse in concentration.
Ferrer again provided stubborn resistance in the second set as he raced into a 3-1 lead, before the two-times Grand Slam victor moved through the gears and won five straight games to seal the match.
No. 4 seed Stan Wawrinka beat seventh seed David Ferrer 7-5, 6-2 in the day’s second match in Group Ilie Nastasi to improve to 1-1.
Ripping forehands to all corners of the court and moving smoothly, the 29-year-old dominated throughout and is all but sure of a place in the semi-finals of the tournament.
Though, his hair hasn’t really been much of a problem for him over the years, I mean, he kind of looked like a sheep a few years ago…
For all the glories Rafael Nadal has harvested in his brilliant tennis career, one great prize has managed to elude him: the year-end title at the ATP World Tour Finals.
The 14-times grand slam champion has won 14 of his 18 matches since a disappointing defeat in the U.S. Open third round by Fabio Fognini, reaching finals in Beijing and Basel as well as the semis in Shanghai. “I’m just going to have the same approach as everybody else and try to win every match that I play on”. “It was in the low 40s in the second set, like 35 percent”.
After the two traded breaks midway through the opener, Nadal broke at 5-4 to close out the first set 6-4.
Defeat for Murray would leave him free to focus on the Davis Cup, but he nonetheless wants to make it through and hopes his heavy loss to Nadal will have provided a jolt.
This was the first time Nadal had beaten a player ranked in the top two since the French Open past year. Also I didn’t help myself out there.
Wawrinka said: “It was a tough battle”.
Murray had four double-faults in the match-up and was just 22 of 51 on his first serves.
“Nadal was gracious in victory, saying “…The tactic against Murray is to play very well.
Federer defeated the world number one 7-5 6-2 but Djokovic bounced back on Thursday to progress from the round-robin stage by beating Tomas Berdych 6-3 7-5.
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“I started the match extremely well”.
