Rafael Nadal says his confidence was boosted after comfortably beating Stan Wawrinka in his ATP World Tour Finals opener in London.
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Murray will qualify for the last four if he beats Nadal and the evening match sees any result other than a straight-set win for Stan Wawrinka.
It was a more competitive match than the final scoreline suggests – it took Nadal one hour and 22 minutes to seal victory, with Wawrinka digging deep to save 11 of 15 break points in the match.
“I’ve only played two tournaments in the last six or seven weeks, seven or eight weeks really”.
“I’m very happy to be back, the a year ago has been tough”, BBC Sport quotes Nadal as saying.
“The last couple of weeks I ” ve been playing well.
“Was just a really bad day at the office”.
While Wawrinka was poor, it was another positive step for Nadal as he tries to rediscover the kind of form that delivered 14 grand slam titles and the world number one ranking.
It was not an auspicious start for Nadal as he lost his opening game to love but, as it turned out, the first nine points of the match went against serve.
He could not capitalise on three break points in the eighth game but was gifted the opening set with a Ferrer double fault.
The 28-year-old’s preparations have been geared towards a claycourt in Ghent rather than the indoor surface at the O2 Arena, but he still toyed with Ferrer at times.
“I feel good. Hopefully I can perform well here and in Belgium”.
The Swiss player did not offer much resistance while Nadal plundered his serve in the second set and will need to display more grit against Ferrer, one of the tour’s fiercest competitors.
The pressure was mounting on Ferrer and again it told in the 10th game as Murray clinched his first match point with a leaping smash. It’s the last tournament of the year, so I don’t want to leave this week.
Should he beat Nadal today Murray will be guaranteed to finish the year as world number two.
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Nadal has undoubtedly had a hard season but he is ending it with confidence restored after a series of encouraging displays.
