Bad hair day as well for Murray

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. That was the set, and Murray could not manage to regroup quickly as he immediately committed two double faults and a wild forehand error to go 3-0 down in the second.

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.

“I think I played well in general”, said Nadal afterwards.

Meanwhile, Murray also played down any injury fears ahead of next week’s Davis Cup final having clutched his left hamstring after dashing to reach a drop shot late on.

It’s not the first time Murray’s had a very public haircut. “It was in the low 40s in the second set, like 35 percent”.

It was hard to tell quite how well he had played against a seriously out-of-sorts Stan Wawrinka on Monday, and he began shakily here, dropping his serve in the opening game. After mainly winning most of his matches on clay, Nadal has looked strong on hardcourt.

The effort at staying competitive in the first set seemed to come at a mental and physical cost in the second, leaving Murray flat.

Britain’s Andy Murray returns to Spain’s Rafael Nadal during a men’s singles group stage …

The British No1 knows this national team success would stand alongside his Wimbledon, US Open and London Olympic glories as well as being the greatest British sporting success story of the year. “That’s not going to be good enough against him when he’s playing that well”, the Briton added.

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.

“He’s won way more matches the last few months”, Murray said. I served an extremely low percentage, maybe the lowest I’ve served all year in any match.

The result (on the court) means Murray will in all likelihood have to beat Stan Wawrinka in his final round-robin group game to progress to the semi-finals. “Happy for that. I just want to try to keep working the same way to keep confirming that I am in the completely right direction”. Novak Djokovic, Kei Nishikori and Tomas Berdych can join them on day five.

But the Scot won their only previous match of 2015, beating Nadal on his home soil – and his favourite clay surface – in the Madrid final.