Rafael Nadal will take on Andy Murray in the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London after the Spaniard wrapped up his third consecutive round robin win against Tomas Berdych.
Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic will face off in Saturday’s other semi-final at the season finale after Djokovic rolled over a tired Andy Roddick 6-2 6-3 to earn his last four spot. The man nicknamed the Djoker made a jokey reference to the problems he had with his contact lens against Nadal two days ago but walking on court wearing an eye patch bought from a London joke shop.
Nadal, who beat Berdych in the Wimbledon final earlier in the season , wrapped up a 7-6 6-1 repeat win over the Czech despite losing his composure late in the second set over a disputed line-call. The Spaniard appeared furious when he felt he should have been awarded a point following a correct Hawkeye challenge during the tiebreaker, but he was back to his usual genial self after the match.
“It’s a very good end of the season whatever the result (against Murray) Nadal told the BBC. “For me, to finish the season winning all the matches in the group, three victories against top-eight players on probably the most difficult surface for me, is unbelievable.
“I’m very happy to be in the semi-finals. It’s going to be a very difficult match against one of the best players in the world. Maybe the circumstances are more favourable for him, but I’m very happy how I am playing, how I improved during the tournament.”
Murray said he was looking forward to facing Nadal in arguably the more eagerly-anticipated of the two semi-finals, at least by Murray’s British fans. “He’s obviously the best player in the world,” the Briton said on Thursday. “I’ve watched his matches here and he’s been playing unbelievably well.
“You know, I don’t seem to beat those guys in the big matches so I’m going to have to play my best tennis against him to win. I need to do it in a big match, in the semis. I have to see whether I can do that or not.”
Topics: Andy Murray, Andy Roddick, Atp World Tour, Best Player, British Fans, Briton, Eye Patch, Face Off, Final Four, finals, finalshowdown, Grand Slam, Grand Slam Champion, Joke Shop, Match, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Season Finale, Semi Finals, Semis, Spaniard, Sports, Tennis, Tiebreaker, Tomas Berdych, Wimbledon