Impressive Nadal storms past Murray in London

It’s always hard to play David and I’m really happy.

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

Murray and Australian Peers took on defending champions Bob and Mike Bryan in a straight shoot-out for a place in the semi-finals and looked poised for victory at 9-5 in the first-to-10 deciding match tie-break.

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.

Andy Murray blamed poor serving rather than the distraction of a mid-match haircut for his chastening loss to a resurgent Rafael Nadal at the ATP World Tour Finals.

“I had a few hair in my eye and I just wanted to get rid of it. That literally took two seconds and that was it”, he said.

Nadal moved to the brink of the semi-finals by beating home favourite Murray 6-4 6-1 in an impressive display at the O2 Arena.

Murray had four double-faults in the match-up and was just 22 of 51 on his first serves. “Also I didn’t help myself out there”, Murray explained. “Whereas now I’m quite aware that my game needs to go up a level”.

The Swiss had been heavily criticised for his performance against Nadal on Monday but he showed his fighting spirit to recover from 2-5 in the opening set against David Ferrer and win 7-5 6-2.

Both players averaged 74 miles per hour (mph) off their forehand side, with Murray’s backhand averaging 69 mph to Nadal’s 67 mph.

Did the incident belie any stress or preoccupation with next week’s Davis Cup final? “I t’s a good solution”.

Murray will team up with Brazilian Bruno Soares next year looking to build on the best season of his career, which was capped by grand slam final appearances at Wimbledon and the US Open.

“Was not at the right time to know that, ” Nadal said before praising Murrays ingenuity with the scissors.

“Nadal was gracious in victory, saying “…The tactic against Murray is to play very well.

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

For British world number two Murray, his thoughts may already be drifting towards next week’s Davis Cup final against Belgium on a claycourt in Ghent, although victory over Wawrinka on Friday will earn him a place in the semi-finals.

Murray stormed out of the blocks to lead 3-0, but with his first serve faltering, Gasquet found a way to work his way back into it, levelling at 4-4 after a break to love in the seventh game.