Federer and Wawrinka meet for the second straight year in semi-finals

After beating David Ferrer and losing to Rafael Nadal, Murray faced a straight shoot-out with Stan Wawrinka for a place in the last four. The Swiss fourth seed was far from his best against the Scott has he blew a 5-3 lead in the first before winning in a tie break and then almost gave up a double break lead in the second set. He has at-times this week looked disinterested and there is no telling if memories of last year’s match will haunt or motivate him. He will be overhauled by Federer if the world number three wins the Tour Finals. In the tie-breaker, despite trailing 2-4, Wawrinka won the set in 66 minutes. He looked more confident, more fresh, more energised than earlier in a year that had brought unexpected losses via seesawing form.

Great Britain have not won the Davis Cup for 79 years but – largely thanks to Murray’s superlative year – are the favourites to beat Belgium on their home turf in the final and end the long wait.

Federer and Wawrinka battled for two hours and 48 minutes at The O2 in the 2014 semi-finals, with Wawrinka holding four match points in the final set, before Federer emerged with a 4-6 7-5 7-6(6) triumph.

But Murray was not quite finished and, after retrieving one of the breaks, he urged the crowd to get behind him. He started slicing his serves a little wider, putting less of his first serves in play but setting himself up well for the rallies.

But those were soon answered when he strained every sinew to make a forehand pass in the third game and leapt in the air in celebration.

If anyone doubted Nadal’s effort, albeit thwarted effort, it was written in his unforced errors: Just one in the match.

He could not take them, though, and his racquet bore the brunt of obvious frustration before Wawrinka finally closed it out.

He added: “All these top players mask the failings, it [the LTA] is a pitiful organisation. Disappointing”, the 28-year-old, who fell at the group stage for the second year running, told reporters.

“I don’t feel unbeatable”, Djokovic said, “but it does definitely feel great when I’m playing the way I played today”. But I am not anxious about it. I am happy about the things, how are going. Obviously the only positive for me this week is I’ve come away from it injury-free.

“When you’re playing and competing against the best players, obviously it’s very important to do well”.

In the Open era no two players have played each other more often than Djokovic and Nadal, whose head-to-head record now stands at 23 wins apiece. “But I’m very happy about what I did in the last five weeks of the season”.

Bizarrely, Murray returned to the court with coach Jonas Bjorkman for a late-night hit, presumably in search of his lost timing.

He knew, too, that victory would ensure he finished the season at No 2 in the world for the first time and would take that status into the Australian Open in January, thus staying away from the world No 1 Novak Djokovic at least until the final.