| Advertisement |
Rafael Nadal upset second-seeded Andy Murray 6-4, 6-1 on Wednesday to improve to 2-0 in group play and clinch a spot in the semifinals of the Barclays ATP World Finals at the O2 Arena in London. No. 4 seed Stan Wawrinka beat seventh seed David Ferrer 7-5, 6-2 in the day's second match in Group Ilie Nastasi to improve to 1-1. Murray will play Wawrinka on Friday, with the winner joining Nadal in the semis.
Advertisement
Murray, who won his opening match over Ferrer and is trying to finish the year with the No. 2 overall ranking, broke Nadal's serve to open the match. But the fifth-seeded Nadal broke right back and went on to take the first set in 57 minutes. He used nine unforced errors from Murray in the opening three games of the second set to grab an early break and cruise to victory.
"I'm just happy the way that I played today, happy the way I was working," Nadal told reporters. "Just another step for me be able to play at that level, against such a great player, is good news. Happy for that. Just want to try to keep working the same way to keep confirming that I am in the completely right direction."
Murray needs victory over Wawrinka to close group play on Friday or a loss by Roger Federer at any point of the tournament to finish the season ranked No. 2.
"He was able to dictate most of the points and he was hitting the ball harder than he was at the beginning of the match," Murray said of Nadal, via the ATP. "I was starting to drop the ball shorter. Obviously when he's inside the court, he's extremely, extremely good. He can move his forehand around very well. He can use all of the angles on the court and make you do a lot of moving.
"He's clearly playing better tennis now than a few months ago. Also I didn't help myself out there today. I served extremely low percentage, maybe lowest percentage I served the whole year in any match. It was like the low 40s and in the second set like 35 percent. That's not good enough against someone as good as Rafa."
Wawrinka kept his hopes of advancing alive with a fourth straight victory over Ferrer, who at 33 is the second oldest player in the field to the 34-year-old Federer.
"My game start to feel better out there," Wawrinka told reporters. "I didn't start well. I starting to play a little bit better the middle of the first set. I'm a little bit lucky he gave me back the game to come back. I'm quite happy with the win, especially to turn around the first set and finish that way."
Group Stan Smith will wrap up Thursday, with top-seeded Novak Djokovic (1-1) trying to advance with a victory over sixth seeded Tomas Berdych (0-2), while eighth seed Kei Nishikori (1-1) needs to beat third seed Federer (2-0) to keep his hopes alive.
