Since then, in what has traditionally been his least productive stretch of the season, Nadal has reached the finals in Beijing and Basel, the semis in Shanghai and now London and the quarters in Paris.
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Murray will face Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland in a match that should decide the other semifinalist in the group.
For the 14-time Grand Slam victor, it served as a flawless warm-up game ahead of his semi-final clash with world number one Djokovic, who qualified from the Stan Smith group as the runner-up.
Nadal declared Djokovic “almost unbeatable”, adding with a smile: ” When somebody’s doing this, the only thing I can do is congratulate him and just wish him not the best of luck for the next year”. “It doesn’t matter whether it’s in a smaller event or here”. Although I got broken in the second game, it was a good game. I know what is expected of me. I need to keep working so hard to try to keep going the same way.
“If he does play, I don’t think it will be a factor”. Great crowds, good atmosphere.
“I am going to try to play my game”.
Perhaps the Murray match, which was a straight fight for a place in the last four, took too much out of Wawrinka, who seemed intent on going for broke. Not that he felt such timing issues would hinder him unduly on his Davis Cup date with destiny next weekend.
“To be honest, it’s not an excuse”, said the World No 2.
“As I said before the tournament, I was not able to think about Novak for the whole season”.
The Spaniard had been aggressive in his play in the first three matches, finding depth and penetration with his groundstrokes, but they had little effect on Djokovic. So that is nothing to do with not having enough time to prepare. I don’t think that’s a valid reason.
“I’m not thinking what the impact will have on my career”.
“I’ve lost against Roger three times this year”. The ball actually came shorter than I expected. It is one of the stronger parts of my game. But with confidence came his fearsome backhand, and he broke down the Murray defence with a quick break and a love hold.
No-one could point any fingers at Murray for lack of application here. Saving three break points, he clumsily defended his first set point, giving Ferrer all the time in the world to hit a victor, before overhitting a deep forehand that meant the first set would end in a tiebreak.
“There have been many close matches over the years”. Everyone can make mistakes.
Nadal’s strokes still looked clean, but Ferrer was playing far more aggressively at this point, and Nadal simply didn’t have the opportunity to step into the court.
Wawrinka thus finished second in the group with a 2-1 record; Murray was 1-2.
Wawrinka then motored through a second set in which he hit 19 winners to two from Ferrer. Sometimes when you’re playing against the best players in the world, they can play great tennis.
Serving to stay in the match Nadal could resist no longer and Djokovic clinched victory after an hour and 19 minutes, nailing a backhand victor down the line to bring up match point and then finding the opposite corner.
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He said: “If it itches too much, I’ll take it off. If my girls can’t stand it, I’ll take it off. If I look in the mirror and I don’t like it, I’ll take it off”.
