Andy Murray Highlights: Comeback Kid Rafa Sweeps No. 2

“When I hit the ball and I know the ball will go in, when I don’t think about how to hit the ball, when I think just about where to hit it, that’s good news”.

The Serbian now faces Nadal for a place in the final and seems set to be sternly tested by a rejuvenated Nadal, who eased to a 6-4 6-1 victory over world number two Andy Murray on Wednesday.

Murray and Nadal had only met once before this season, in the final of the clay-court Madrid Masters, when Murray stunned his rival by dominating the match to take one of the most impressive titles of his career.

Andy Murray was struggling, both with his serve and his hair.

“I’m trying to win every match that I play”.

“From the middle till the end of the second set, he played extremely well”, Murray said.

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

As with so many matches at the tournament over the past couple of years, once the first set had been decided, the second was a virtual non-event.

As Nadal resumed his assault in the second set, Murray again fumbled with his serving and a double fault paved the way for another break.

A distracted Murray, who bizarrely clipped his fringe with a pair of scissors during one changeover early on, capitulated, but only after Nadal had softened him up with the kind of ferocious hitting that earned him 14 grand slam titles.

The statistics did not make pretty reading for the Scot, who made 29 unforced errors and won just 10 per cent of points on his second serve in the second set.

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

Nadal has never won the ATP Finals finishing runner-up twice before. I was up 5-3 to win the set and I did mistakes, important mistakes. All very odd. It was explained as “I had a few hair in my eye and I wanted to get rid of it”.

Nadal will face fellow Spaniard David Ferrer in his next group stage match to cement his top position on the group table.

“It’s going to be interesting how I’m going to play Friday, if I’m going to bring the positive game that I started to play on Wednesday, and also how he’s going to be. I have had a different career also”, the world No4 said.

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

Ferrer came into the match with a 7-6 advantage in their Fed Ex ATP Head2Head rivalry, but the Swiss has now prevailed in their last 4 matches. “I’m very happy and working hard to play these matches”.