Rafael Nadal: This Win Over Andy Murray Is Just The Beginning

Andy Murray has said that Rafael Nadal is always one of the favourites to win titles after suffering a straight-sets defeat at the hands of the Spaniard in the pair’s group stage match at the ATP World Tour Finals in London, The Hindu reports.

Wawrinka should provide a major test. Although the world No 4 looked out of sorts when he lost his opening match to Nadal, he came back strongly to beat David Ferrer on Wednesday.

“He obviously played better than he did when I played him earlier in the year”, said Murray.

“Today I feel free. I was enjoying on court”.

“The couple of matches, first couple of matches he played here against [Stan] Wawrinka and Murray showed that, showed that he feels more confident, shows that he’s starting to miss less, serve efficiently, use his forehand much better”.

Nadal only needed to hold serve from there, but he went one better, claiming another break to close out the suprisingly straightforward victory over a by-now despondent Murray in 93 minutes. “I have had a different career also”, the world No4 said.

Those of us with longer locks know the struggle, but while most would distractedly play on, Murray made a decision to do something about it. “I can not think about that, seriously”. He wasted no time in cutting it, saying it only took him two seconds to get it done. Both Nadal and Muray are contesting their seventh Finals the season-ending tournament disputed between the top eight players on a hard court.

Nadal is a two-time finalist at the World Tour Finals and he improved his career record at the event to 15-11 with the win.

This was the first time Nadal had beaten a player ranked in the top two since the French Open previous year, and all his rivals will be wary of the 14-time grand slam champion on this form.

And historically, that is enough for Rafa to beat just about anyone.

Nadal created seven break points in the first as Murray’s first-serve percentage waned – it can be low, but 45% is lower than normal – although the 28-year-old had his chances, too.

Should Murray won, he would have been assured of the number two spot at year-end, but that won’t be happening after he was outsmarted by Nadal. He will take on Wawrinka in his third and final round-robin match. I think was late on the year, but at the same time is at least the right time I try to finish the year with that positive feeling. Although I got broken in the second game, it was a good game.