Friday’s victory did not come easy, as Ferrer rallied from two breaks down to take the first set in a tiebreaker. Ferrer once again answered with a break of his own, and forced the match into a tiebreaker.
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Should Federer win that match and go on to beat either Rafa Nadal or Novak Djokovic in Sunday’s final, it may be the veteran Swiss, and not Murray, who will be World No 2 going into January and the Australian Open.
Federer avenged his five-match losing streak against Nadal after beating the Spaniard in three sets 6-3 5-7 6-3 to claim his seventh trophy at hometown tournament at the Swiss Indoors Basel on November 1.
Wawrinka, who now has three wins – all on clay – out of 20 meetings over his senior and more illustrious compatriot, could have posted his first win over the former World No. 1 on hardcourts. It seems like the last month and a half, two months, I was in this top league. If physicality is not an issue, I believe variety and a generally good run of recent indoor form will see him through Wawrinka. “For me the main goal is to try to arrive in good shape next year”.
Murray will now shift his attention to helping Great Britain win the Davis Cup in Belgium next weekend, while Wawrinka will take on Roger Federer in the semi-final clash.
Any doubts about Murray’s determination to stay in the tournament would have been dismissed by a typically gritty display from the Scot, but he was left to count the cost of 30 unforced errors as he exited in the group stages.
“You can feel that he’s starting to get comfortable on the court, starting to play better”.
Wawrinka served for the first set at 5-3 but Murray broke back after chasing down a volley to hit a passing shot for a victor and force the tiebreaker. But after earning the first mini-break, the Briton made a number of errors to hand the momentum back to Wawrinka. I made too many mistakes. It was a fairly basic shot. At one point in the final game of the match he chased down a searching forehand and clutched his lower back and grimaced but the moment passed.
Nadal’s forays into the court will also take away Djokovic’s advantage, while the forehand regaining its severity will also help the 2010 finalist’s chances considering that Djokovic went mostly to Nadal’s forehand, exploiting his inexplicable weakness to his much-favoured win.
The set then came down to a tiebreaker, in which Wawrinka reeled off the last five points to overcome a 4-2 deficit.
“Maybe. But I am not anxious about it, no. Today was an opportunity to compete well”. We also start to know each other better and better, with previous year playing Davis Cup, sharing a lot of good memories together. I won a very tough match. I need to play my best to have any chance. I think was late on the year, but at the same time is at least the right time I try to finish the year with that positive feeling.
Nadal leveled the match after breaking for 5-3 in the second set and then serving it out at love.
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Nadal has been playing with a consistency that has been missing for so much of the year, and with Djokovic somewhat below his best so far an upset can not be discounted, although he has lost his last seven out of eight against the Serb.
