Novak Djokovic was at his clinical best against Rafael Nadal.
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Rafael Nadal warmed up for tonight’s semi-final against world number one Novak Djokovic by defeating David Ferrer 6-7 6-3 6-4 at the ATP World Tour Finals yesterday.
In what was Nadal’s final group game and with qualification already assured it was a dead rubber match in truth as his opponent Ferrer was already out of the tournament and playing for pride.
That will not be the case for Nadal: ‘I didn’t do the right work this year so I don’t deserve a vacation, ‘ he said. What transpired from there is better than any Hollywood script. The end result on the court was Wawrinka giving up the lead and Federer ultimately winning a final set tie break 8-6 to get to his ninth final at the ATP World Tour Finals. “He was better than me and he deserved to do what he did during the whole season”. Today I feel free.
But in the next match point, Murray sent long his cross court shot. The final Ilie Nastase group match lasted one hour 55 minutes with Wawrinka winning in straight sets 7-6(4), 6-4.
Federer, will know exactly what his good friend is capable of doing. Best-of-five slightly different. But I had a good year in slams, as well, to be quite honest, except Australia. That doesn’t mean I am going to play well every match. Wawrinka also played wayward tennis in losing to Nadal but came alive against Ferrer.
“I wanted to try and win the tournament”, Murray said. I don’t try harder at Roland Garros than I do at Doha.
I expect Federer will probably win this one, but it’s hardly a tempting proposition at [1.36], given the game that Wawrinka possesses – as ever with him it’s a case of what he’ll produce on the day.
“Regardless of the outcome of tomorrow’s match, the season will still be the best that I had”, said Djokovic, who won three of the four Grand Slam titles in 2015 and reached the final in the other. He plays Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals on Saturday. Prior to the loss, the Serbian had record an extraordinary 23 successive wins, taking in titles at the U.S. Open, Beijing, Shanghai and Paris to continue a dominant year.
Wawrinka now goes through to a rematch of last year’s dramatic encounter with compatriot Roger Federer, which ended in acrimony after Federer’s wife Mirka heckled Wawrinka with the now infamous taunt of “cry baby”.
And yet his biggest achievement this season may not come through any personal or financial accolade but the Davis Cup where he has nearly single-handedly dragged Great Britain into their first final since 1978.
“It took a lot of time”, Djokovic said, playing down the importance of such statistics. I have been in very good situations a couple of times, then I get a few injuries, things change.
They’ve both had greater success against Djokovic this season than Nadal.
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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.
