ATP World Tour Finals: Resurgent Nadal thrashes Murray to enter semis

Spaniard strolls as home favourite left with one last chance of progressing

LONDON: Rafael Nadal showed he was getting back to his best as he crushed Andy Murray at the World Tour Finals on Wednesday with an impressive 6-4, 6-1 victory.

The Spanish fifth seed was in dominant form as the British world number two’s game collapsed in front of a home crowd at the 17,800-capacity O2 Arena in London.

The resurgent Nadal is now through to the semi-finals of the season-ending tournament, disputed on a hard court between the year’s top eight players.

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In Friday’s final round-robin matches in their four-man group, Murray will face Swiss fourth seed Stan Wawrinka, with the winner joining Nadal in the last-four.

The Spaniard’s spot in the semis was confirmed after seventh-seeded compatriot David Ferrer’s hopes of making it out of the group evaporated with a 7-5, 6-2 defeat to Wawrinka.

The first set of the match between Nadal and Murray was a high-level contest featuring impressive rallies and smart drop shots, but in the second, Murray’s game fell away as Nadal turned up the power.

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Nadal, beset by problems during the worst year of his career, at one stage slumped to 10th in the world — his lowest position since 2005.

But the 14-time Grand Slam champion showed how dangerous he could be in 2016 if he continues his resurgence.

“This is an important victory,” said the clay court-lover. “But it’s just the beginning. I need to keep working hard to try to keep going the same way.”

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Murray held off break points at 2-3 and 3-4 down but eventually cracked when serving to stay in the set, swiping at fresh air as Nadal broke to love.

In the second set, Murray made 16 unforced errors to Nadal’s three and won just 10% of the points on his second serve as the Mallorcan raced away with the match. 

Published in The Express Tribune, November 20^th, 2015.

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