By Piers Newbery
Rafael Nadal ensured he will end the year as world number one with victory over Stanislas Wawrinka at the ATP World Tour Finals in London.The Spaniard, 27, won 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (8-6) to secure a semi-final place and guarantee he cannot be overtaken by world number two Novak Djokovic.
It will be the third time Nadal – who called it “the perfect scenario” – has finished a year top of the rankings.
Tomas Berdych plays David Ferrer in the day’s other Group A match at 20:00 GMT
“There are a lot of emotions today,” said Nadal. “I was a bit lucky but I’m happy to be through to the semi-finals in the last tournament of the year.
“After missing this tournament last year, it’s been an unbelievable comeback year.
“Being number one at end of the season is something really difficult as there are some unbelievable competitors out there. But without my team behind me, it would be hard to think about achieving this.”
Two straight-sets wins within 24 hours have seen Nadal qualify from the group as efficiently as possible, and he remains on track to land the most significant title still absent from his CV.
Wawrinka, 28, might be enjoying the best year of his career but Nadal remains too great a challenge for the Swiss, who has now lost all of their 12 matches without winning a single set.
He got close to breaking that duck at the 25th and 26th attempts, but Nadal once again proved himself to be a supreme competitor.
Under pressure at 5-5 in the first tie-break, the Spaniard played a brilliant defensive backhand that dropped on the baseline and Wawrinka pulled a backhand wide to offer up set point.
When Wawrinka stumbled at the net, the world number one swooped in to fire a forehand past him and take a grip on the match.
The frustration of yet again failing to win a set after 61 minutes of hard work boiled over and Wawrinka was warned for racquet abuse as he headed to his chair.
In a tense start to the second set he complained to umpire Carlos Bernardes about the noise coming from the watching Nadal camp. However, the official took no action despite admitting it was “not normal”.
Nadal needed no help from his camp or his large following among the 17,000 spectators to get the key break in game four as Wawrinka dumped a volley in the net and made two forehand errors.
The Swiss challenge looked all but over at 4-1 down, but Wawrinka was still creating opportunities and, after a couple of suspect volleys earlier in the match, a kind net cord helped him get back on level terms.
Wawrinka was playing the more spectacular winners but, just as in the first set, it was Nadal who prevailed when the pressure was really on in the tie-break.
A smash sa
ved set point and the Spaniard clinched victory after two hours and 12 minutes when Wawrinka made his 23rd forehand error of the match.
