|
 Wawrinka, who produced arguably the year's standout performance when
he beat Novak Djokovic in the French Open final, appeared at times
to be going through the motions against Rafa Nadal in the night
session at the ATP World Tour Finals.
Rushing through points and spraying 35 unforced errors, world number
four Wawrinka, who lost an epic semi-final here last year to Roger
Federer, collapsed to a 6-3 6-2 defeat.
In the day's earlier Ilie Nastase Group 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 Ferrier.
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.
"I don't know. Was just a really bad day at the office. Many little
things that weren't good today," 30-year-old Wawrinka, who is
guaranteed $167,000 just for showing up, told reporters when asked
about his performance.
"It's a really bad match. Bad behaviour in the second set. Things
weren't too great about myself."
"Just disappointed in general. Everything went wrong. Just
everything went the wrong way. Simple."
While Wawrinka was poor, it was another positive step for Nadal as
he tries to rediscover the kind of form that delivered 14 grand slam
titles and the world number one ranking.
Things did not start well when he lost his opening service game to
love, but he replied immediately in similar fashion and moved 5-3
ahead when his opponent blazed a forehand wide.
He failed to convert any of the seven break points a rattled
Wawrinka offered up at the start of the second set and then saved
two himself in the next game, one with a stunning lob.
Wawrinka then crumbled.
"Every day for me now is an opportunity to enjoy on court, enjoy the
competition, something that I missed for moments this year," Nadal,
who fell to 10th in the rankings during a miserable summer, said.
With Murray up next on Wednesday, however, Nadal played down
expectations that he could yet end a below-par year with his first
ATP Tour Finals title, having twice been runner-up.
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"I won the first match, that's all. I cannot think about that,
seriously."
Murray, despite having one eye on next week's Davis Cup final in
Belgium, definitely looks capable of claiming the title and complete
the hat-trick of Wimbledon, Olympic gold and Tour Finals in his home
city.
The 28-year-old's preparations have been geared towards a claycourt
in Ghent rather than the indoor surface at the O2 Arena, but he
still toyed with Ferrier at times.
Murray, who already boasted a career-best 68 wins this season coming
into the tournament, saved a break point in the opening game and
then settled into his groove.
He could not capitalise on three break points in the eighth game but
was gifted the opening set with a Ferrier double fault -- one of
eight the Spaniard produced.
One lapse, when he was broken to love in the first game of the
second set, was quickly corrected as he broke back twice to beat
Ferrier for the 12th time in 18 meetings.
Should he beat Nadal on Wednesday Murray will be guaranteed to
finish the year as world number two.
"It would be obviously nice to finish number two because I haven't
done it before, but it's not a goal that I'd set for myself at the
beginning of this year," Murray said.
More important will be helping Britain win the Davis Cup for the
first time since 1936.
(Editing by Greg Stutchbury)
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