Nadal battles to victory with Djokovic waiting in the semis

Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka secured the last remaining semifinal spot at the ATP World Tour Finals with his 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 victory here Friday night over Scottish world No. 2 Andy Murray.

Should Federer win that match and go on to beat either Rafa Nadal or Novak Djokovic in Sunday’s final, it may be the veteran Swiss, and not Murray, who will be World No 2 going into January and the Australian Open. Wawrinka, serving for the match for the second time, soon trailed 0-30, before producing a huge cross court shot, which Murray failed to keep in play.

For Nadal, his play so far at the tournament has been a continuation of his late season improvement during a year in which he has lost 19 times – a staggering number for him.

There were questions before the match about how much Murray really wanted to make the semi-finals having made clear next weekend’s Davis Cup final against Belgium was his priority. The number 4 seed Swiss defeated 4th seed Murray 7-6 6-4 on Friday at the O2, London He will next face countryman Roger Federer in an all-Swiss final-four showdown.

Both men energetically pursued break points in the early stages and Murray brought up his first after scampering to send over a stretching forehand victor, but the stubborn Wawrinka stood firm.

Murray said he could have few complaints about his Tour Finals failure after a lacklustre effort against Rafael Nadal and then an error-strewn loss to Wawrinka.

I expect Federer will probably win this one, but it’s hardly a tempting proposition at [1.36], given the game that Wawrinka possesses – as ever with him it’s a case of what he’ll produce on the day. “It was tough. I couldn’t quite get the balance”.

“Then the next week I’m going to practise a little bit of tennis and more physical performance”.

“For me, today was another opportunity to compete”. Consistency though has been more a Federer strong suit this week and I think in the end that will see him march on without the aid of Mirka this time.

“It’s an wonderful tournament to play”, Wawrinka said. Facing Djokovic on an indoor hard court-even a slow one-is simply not a good matchup for the 14-time major champion.

Elsewhere in the Spanish La Liga, Real Sociedad are set to play Sevilla, Espanyol battle it out with Malaga, Valencia take on Las Palmas at MestaYa, and Deportivo La Coruna will host Celta Vigo. He smashed his racked when Wawrinka smashed a victor for match point, before hitting long for deuce.

“I’m going to have a couple of days off after here, then I have a charity event for my foundation”. He is achieving nearly everything that one player can dream.

Losing his last two matches of the week was not the way he wanted to prepare for the Davis Cup final: the importance of winning – and building momentum for Ghent – illustrated all too clearly by the racquet smash that greeted Wawrinka’s first match point.

For with all the permutations that become possible in a round-robin format between the best eight players in the world, it is a rare and exciting occasion indeed for qualification into the semis to come down to a knock-out bout, and in the very last match of the round-robin phase.