Taking advantage of it all was Rafael Nadal, who ended up with a 6-4, 6-1 win Wednesday for his second straight victory at the season-ending ATP finals.
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That result means Nadal has won the group following his 6-4 6-1 victory over Murray earlier, and the victor of the clash between the Scot and Wawrinka on Friday will qualify for the last four in second place.
“I just happy the way that I play today, happy the way I working”, said the 14-time major champion. “I was enjoying on court”.
“I’m not saying that losing is ever the most positive thing”, said Murray.
In contrast, Murray’s poor first serve percentage of 43 and Nadal’s fine returning combined to work against the player who will lead Britain into next week’s Davis Cup final.
“I think I’m close to knowing which direction I want to go with it, I just want to have a chat with one or two tried and tested confidants and then I’ll try and communicate with the players as possible because I think that’s better all round”. I served an extremely low percentage, maybe the lowest I’ve served all year in any match. Murray was finding ways to stay alive in this match, hitting his winners and best serves at the right time.
“I wasn’t really helping myself”.
“Obviously for a few months this year he was struggling for form a little bit”, Murray told reporters.
The 29-year-old improved to 2-0 in Group Ilie Nastase, while Murray fell to 1-1.
Wawrinka – beaten by Rafael Nadal in his first match – will now face Andy Murray for a place in the semi-finals. “That s not good enough against someone as good as Rafa”.
The pair exchanged breaks to start the match, but from this point on the encounter was played on Nadal’s terms.
Djokovic will join Federer in the semi-finals unless he loses in straight sets to Berdych in the evening match.
The 30-year-old Swiss clinched the set after another service break and then used his superior firepower to take full control of the second set, rolling to victory despite 15 unforced errors over the final eight games and 35 for the match.
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Ranked back at five in the world, after slumping to 10th during a miserable summer which included defeats by dreadlocked German Dustin Brown in the second round of Wimbledon and Fabio Fognini at the U.S. Open, Nadal appears to be heading into 2016 ready to challenge for the big prizes again. Although I got broken in the second game, I was hitting the ball well.
