This is Wawrinka’s third straight win over Murray, although Murray has an 8-7 overall head to head advantage still.
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The British No 1 wastefully let a lead slip away in the opening tie-break and then spurned a break point as Wawrinka served out a 7-6 6-4 win to secure a semi-final with Roger Federer on Saturday. I suppose having already won the group, the last match was as good a one as any to have a sluggish performance and set off the alarm bells for coach Edberg for what needs to be worked on for the weekend.
“Way too many errors”.
Murray’s frustration got the better of him at points during yesterday’s match. I missed a forehand on the first ball of the rally. It was a fairly basic shot.
The sixth game showcased the all-round backhand power of Wawrinka, first a victor down the line, then one crosscourt for a love hold, 4-2. Way too many errors. Cheap ones, as well.
Great Britain have not won the Davis Cup for 79 years but – largely thanks to Murray’s superlative year – are the favourites to beat Belgium on their home turf in the final and end the long wait.
Murray leapt in the air and pumped his fist.
The problem was not desire but timing.
There was no chance for Murray in the next game as Wawrinka shut the door on him to move 4-2 up in the set.
Nadal saved a break point to begin the second set aided by a body serve and managed to contain Djokovic for a spell.
Stan Wawrinka may not have played his best tennis this week, but he did enough to get to the semifinals for the third straight year. “Everyone obviously can make mistakes”.
Intriguingly, Murray’s support camp were not sat courtside but higher up in the stands. “Sometimes when the box is extremely close to the court, I can find that a distraction”, he said.
“I think it was very self aware of him and them”.
He insisted his inconsistent efforts weren’t the result of spending most of the week before the Tour Finals practising on clay courts at Queen’s Club to prepare for the surface that will be used in next week’s Davis Cup final in Ghent.
“I’m going to have a couple of days off after here, then I have a charity event for my foundation. I’m going to be focused on that, try to rest, try to recover and be ready for hopefully a good match”.
It has been a season largely plagued by self-doubts for Nadal, having fallen to No. 10 in June for the first time since 2005 and suffered the most losses (19) in a single campaign in his 14-year career. “So that’s something that I would imagine would come back fairly quickly”.
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.
A late-night hitting session with his coach Jonas Bjorkman was the start of his therapy.
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He fought back from 5-2 down in the second set to have a point for 5-5 before succumbing in one hour and 54 minutes.
