Reuters
London, Nov 21: Britain’s Andy Murray can focus fully on next week’s Davis Cup assignment in Belgium after Stanislas Wawrinka sent him packing from the ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 Arena here Friday.
The concluding round-robin match at the year-ender had become a straight knockout between the two players after Rafael Nadal had already sealed top spot in the Ilie Nastase Group, and Wawrinka looked the sharper as he won 7-6 (7-4), 6-4. He will now meet countrymate Roger Federer for a place in the final.
Earlier, a below par Nadal spent two hours and 36 minutes beating fellow Spaniard David Ferrer 6-7 (2-7), 6-3, 6-4 to make sure he went into Saturday’s semifinal against World No.1 Novak Djokovic with a 100 per cent record so far this week.
Murray and Wawrinka were both guilty of numerous careless errors in both the sets. In the first set tie-breaker Murray led 4-2 in the tie-breaker before blowing it away with a string of casual shots.
His Swiss opponent then wobbled towards the end and nearly let slip a 5-2 lead, having to save two break points when he served for the match for a second time at 5-4.
World No. 2 Murray, who smashed a frame in anger in the final game, said the proximity of next week’s Davis Cup final on a clay court in Ghent had not been a factor in his defeat. “Way too many errors. Cheap ones, as well. Disappointing,” the 28-year-old told reporters.
“I didn’t find it difficult not thinking about the Davis Cup final, to be honest. Obviously the only positive for me this week is I’ve come away from it injury-free. Now I have a couple more days to get ready for Belgium,” the Brit added.
With Nadal already in the semifinals and Ferrer going home after two defeats, the clash of the Spaniards had no impact on the tournament but the packed arena was treated to the longest match of the tournament so far.
It looked as though Nadal might be in for an easy ride when he won 10 of the first 11 points, breaking Ferrer twice, but his 33-year-old opponent is renowned as one of the sport’s best battlers and he hit back to win a tie-break.
World No. 5 Nadal, who had already beaten fourth-ranked Wawrinka and Murray, buckled down though and levelled the match before breaking the Ferrer serve in the final game of the contest.
“It should be like this,” Nadal, who has been transformed since a modest summer,” told reporters. “It did not matter to me that I had qualified earlier. For me the main goal is to try to arrive in good shape next year.”
In the doubles, Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo beat Marcin Matkowski and Nenad Zimonjic to set up a semifinal against Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea.
At a glance
Stan Wawrinka bt Andy Murray 7-6 (7-4), 6-4
Rafa Nadal bt David Ferrer 6-7 (2-7), 6-3, 6-4
