In the semi-finals of the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals the Spaniard will face Novak Djokovic for the 45th time, with the loser able to go off and take a break. Both have had an excellent season – whilst Stan added another Grand Slam crown to his name, Murray’s consistency means that a victory would guarantee that he end the year ranked No 2 in the world for the first time.
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Not that he felt such timing issues would hinder him unduly on his Davis Cup date with destiny next weekend.
But the 29-year-old does know his confidence is returning when he is not thinking how to hit the ball but where, and when he is trying to maximise the damage to his opponent rather than simply playing not to miss.
Nadal would break again to serve for the match at 6-5, but again Ferrer responded superbly, succeeding on his fifth break point opportunity of the game to get it back to 6-6. “I feel I’m enjoying it on court”. If he can keep his focus intact – which is his biggest challenge – his blistering backhands and power game can seal him a place in the last-four stage. “I think I competed well”, Nadal said.
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.
Djokovic said: “It’s a fact that he’s been playing better and he’s been raising his level ever since the US Open, I think”.
Losing his last two matches of the week was not the way he wanted to prepare for the Davis Cup final: the importance of winning – and building momentum for Ghent – illustrated all too clearly by the racquet smash that greeted Wawrinka’s first match point. His serve was wobbly with ten break chances for Murray, but to Stan’s credit he did save eight of those and won when it counted.
Rafael Nadal has already guaranteed top spot in the group following his 6-4 6-1 over Murray and second place will be decided by the Scot’s clash with Wawrinka on Friday evening. If he had hit clean winners or played great points at 4-2 in the tiebreak, you come in and you say he was too good at that moment.
While defending champion Djokovic rested after completing his group campaign on Thursday, Nadal slugged it out with Ferrer in a draining baseline battle that lasted two hours and 37 minutes.
So have many. A great warrior who has stumbled into troubled waters, then towels himself off and wades back in for another try makes for compelling viewing.
“I am going to try to play my game”.
Federer has drawn attention not just for his tennis this week – this is the 13th time in 14 appearances he has reached the last four – but also his growing beard. Let’s see tomorrow what’s going to happen, but I am very happy about what I did in the last five weeks of the season. That one was more of a potent display from Wawrinka than anything as Federer could not match his shot making.
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That being said, Federer has been the more consistent player of the two this week.
