Nadal stays on song in London

The Swiss broke for 1-0 in the second to consolidate his margin, but had to overcome a lapse at the end, twice serving for the match after leading the second set 5-2.

The all-Swiss Saturday night clash, meanwhile, will be a rematch of one of last year’s semifinals, in which Federer escaped with a narrow 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (8-6) before having to withdraw prior to the championship match against Novak Djokovic due to a back injury.

Nadal still had a chance to serve for the set after breaking for a 6-5 lead, but he couldn’t finish the job and Ferrer eventually managed to win it in a tie-break. However, a wide Murray forehand allowed Wawrinka to close out the match and book an eagerly anticipated repeat meeting with Federer.

World number one, Djokovic comes to London with a bag full of wins.

World number two, Murray has had a rather tough ride after winning the title at Montreal. I also feel quite exhausted. “I felt like my timing would get better as the event went on, and it didn’t actually, it got worse, which is unusual”.

Wawrinka has also said that he believes that Murray’s diverted attention to the Davis Cup final next weekend is probably taking the sheen away from his performance. “If he’s mentally not really here, then he’s a different player”.

“I need to play my best to have any chance but the right work is done”.

Later Friday, Andy Murray plays Stan Wawrinka with the victor earning a semifinal against Roger Federer.

But the Wimbledon and Olympic champion insists he’s determined to raise his game in London tonight to be ready to make more history.

“At 4-2 (in the tie-break), I gave a cheap point away”. It was a fairly basic shot. Rather than thinking, “Oh, well, I can just lose this set, it’s fine”. He serves big. At certain points in the match, he was hitting the ball very hard off both sides, playing sort of high-risk tennis, making a lot of winners. I think we started around 80 in the world together and finishing up in the top 10, qualifying for the end-of-year Masters here.

“Maybe I’ll think of Santa and keep it. (Christmas is) around the corner”.

“But just from my side, on the important moments I’m a bit disappointed with how I played them”. “Three straight wins against top-eight players, that’s great news for me….” Let’s see tomorrow what’s going to happen, but I am very happy about what I did in the last five weeks of the season.

Nadal settled down and found good range on his serve after the shaky opening game, limiting Murray’s ability to step into the court. An early exit at the US Open followed by back to back losses in the final of Paris and Shanghai to Djokovic have summed up the last couple of months for the Brit. Murray lost to Nadal but a win over Ferrer and the local crowd have kept his dream alive in London.

Forced to stave off two break points in the third game, Wawrinka weathered Murray’s early storm and overpowered him with a few ferocious groundstrokes to secure the first break in the eighth game.

That game seemed to take its toll on both players and neither had another break point until Ferrer netted a backhand at 4-4 and Nadal then hit a forehand victor down the line to take the lead for good.