Nadal powers through in London opener

Spaniard eases past Wawrinka to open his account at the Tour Finals, while Murray sees off Ferrer.

Men''s Singles - Spain''s Rafael Nadal in action during his match against Switzerland''s Stanislas Wawrinka
Nadal has clawed his way back to fifth in the world rankings [Reuters]

Rafa Nadal’s late-season resurgence continued at the ATP World Tour Finals when he beat wayward French Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka 6-3, 6-2 to open his account.

The Spaniard, who has climbed back to fifth in the rankings after falling to 10th in a miserable summer, took advantage of an error-strewn Wawrinka display to move level with Andy Murray at the top of Ilie Nastase Group.

In the day’s earlier match, home favourite and world number two Andy Murray was at least made to scrap for his 6-4 6-4 win over dogged Spaniard David Ferrer.

With Djokovic hammering Japan’s Kei Nishikori on Sunday and Federer cruising past Tomas Berdych it means 14 of the last 16 group matches at the prestigious and much-hyped season finale, have been won in straight sets.

Nadal, back at the Tour Finals after missing out last year because of appendicitis surgery, dropped his opening service game to love but then broke Wawrinka’s as the first nine points all went the way of the receiver.

Wawrinka blazed a forehand to fall 5-3 behind in the opener and Nadal wrapped up the set with an ace.

Nadal failed to convert any of the seven break points Wawrinka offered up at the start of the second set and then had to save two himself in the next game, one with a stunning lob.

‘Solid match’

World number four Wawrinka offered precious little resistance after that and his unforced error count climbed to 35 as Nadal raced to victory.

“I think I played well. I think I played a solid match. I had one bad game, the first one of the match. But then immediately I was playing well,” Nadal told reporters.

“I had a good week of practice here. I think I played the way that I wanted to play. I played aggressive. I played with not many mistakes.”

Source: Reuters