Nadal claims “Novak is nearly unbeatable”

Reigning three-time champion Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer will meet in a repeat of last year’s finals in the championship match at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London on Sunday.

Federer narrowly defeated Wawrinka in last year’s semifinals before a back injury forced him to pull out of the final, also against Djokovic, who will be looking to capture his fourth straight ATP World Tour Finals title.

He is now level with Nadal at 23 wins apiece, the first time Nadal has not led a rivalry that dates back to the French Open in 2006.

In Sunday’s final, his 15th this season, which is a new record, Djokovic will clash with the victor of the match between Switzerland’s Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka.

Carrying the momentum he ended with in set one, Federer quickly jumped to a 3-0 lead breaking Wawrinka in the second game of the set.

“But in terms of the highlights of the year, I would say those were the Wimbledon and US Open finals that I played against Roger”. The Briton committed as many as 42 unforced errors, against Nadal’s 21, even though the Spaniard’s winners count of 20 was four less than Murray’s total. There is a lot at stake.

The Spaniard won all three of his group matches to reach the semi-finals but there was little he could do to stop Djokovic in this sort of form.

Perhaps the Murray match, which was a straight fight for a place in the last four, took too much out of Wawrinka, who seemed intent on going for broke.

Earlier, the team had issued a statement blaming “the individual action of 2-3 fools” for throwing the flares, but also criticized Pappas – whose “entirely mistaken and irresponsible decision” to cancel the match resulted in violence.

The 10-time major champion lost only seven points on his serve in the first set and three in the second. “Another great semifinal against Rafa so I know it’s going to be really hard”.

There would be no sympathy from Nadal, who sealed victory with a fizzing forehand victor, leaving Murray with more work to do in his final match against Stan Wawrinka if he wants to qualify from the group.

“For me it’s an advantage because I guess it gives me a bit of confidence”, Federer, who has accounted for half of Djokovic’s meagre six defeats this year, told reporters. He played just fantastic. Nadal was deservedly on the scoreboard next but Djokovic, nearly riled by losing a game, responded with a brilliant lob to make it 4-1. However, the world number one obviously had other ideas as he won 89% of his first serves and easily converted 60% of his break points, while not facing any break point against him.

“But I feel, honestly, with the way he’s played this season, you still have to put him away”. Federer looked in control now that the match was progressing on serve once again, and he was able to go on the attack when he needed to break for the first set.

Djokovic said: “I don’t feel unbeatable, but it does definitely feel great when I’m playing the way I played today, when I feel like I’m dictating the pace, the match itself, most of the rallies, I feel like I’m on top of my opponent”.