ATP World Tour Finals
Venue: O2 Arena, London Date: 22-29 November
Tournament coverage: Live on BBC Two, 28/29 November, 1430 GMT; every match live on BBC Radio 5 live/5 live sports extra; live text commentaries on BBC Sport website; live coverage every day on Sky Sports
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By Piers Newbery
BBC Sport at the O2 Arena |
Novak Djokovic maintained his hopes of defending the ATP World Tour Finals title with victory over Rafael Nadal in his final round-robin match.
The Serb just about overcame the exhaustion he has talked about to win 7-6 (7-1) 6-3 in one hour 57 minutes as Nadal struggled with a back problem.
Nadal had already seen his hopes of reaching the semi-finals disappear with defeats by Robin Soderling and Nikolay Davydenko, but Djokovic will now go through if the Swede beats the Russian in the evening match.
The qualification scenario was considerably clearer going into Friday's matches than it had been 24 hours earlier.
Day five had ended in chaos as Juan Martin del Potro was left waiting on court after beating Roger Federer to learn whether he had qualified, the Argentine eventually discovering that he had edged out Andy Murray by one game.
Djokovic simply knew that he must beat Nadal on Friday afternoon to stand any chance of retaining his title.
However, the 22-year-old Serb had looked desperately tired in his previous defeat by Davydenko while Nadal remained insistent that he was fully motivated despite a poor week.
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606: DEBATE
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Djokovic's apparent lack of motivation and Nadal's 14-6 head-to-head record in meetings between the pair also suggested the world number two might have the edge, despite the Serb comfortably winning when they last met in Paris two weeks ago.
But Nadal has struggled for form and looked underpowered since returning to the tour following the knee and abdominal injuries that disrupted his year.
It was therefore no surprise that the 21st meeting between the world numbers two and three produced arguably the lowest quality tennis of any of those matches.
The first three games went against serve and Nadal looked like making it four when he earned another break point, but the Spaniard missed with his return and Djokovic - with the help of a fabulous lob - held to lead 3-1.
Djokovic was marginally the more consistent in the baseline exchanges as Nadal struggled on his usually fearsome forehand in particular, but it was hardly vintage stuff from the champion and a backhand into the net brought Nadal level at 4-4.
It may not have been the greatest tennis ever but the 17,000 spectators in the O2 Arena were thrilled to see two of the world's best at least locked in a tight battle.
 Nadal received treatment for a back injury during the second set
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And the tie-break that followed provided plenty of excitement, with a couple of leaked forehands the early difference as Nadal slipped 4-2 down.
A superb lob volley helped Djokovic to 6-2 and four set points, and despite seeing three of them disappear, the Serb converted the fourth when Nadal mishit a forehand.
The two players had managed a disappointing 43 unforced errors between them in the first set, and there were fears that the end might be in sight when Nadal required a medical timeout for attention to his lower back at 2-1 down in the second.
The Spaniard returned to the action but immediately dropped his serve with a forehand into the middle of the net, and staved off another break point in game six.
There was little sign of Djokovic being derailed until he served for victory and, despite his body language suggesting otherwise, the Serb had sufficient energy to recover from 0-30, save a break point and close out the win on his third match point.
Seventh seeds Max Mirnyi and Andy Ram earlier beat fourth seeds Lukas Dlouhy and Leander Paes 7-6 (7-1) 6-4 to qualify for the last four from doubles Group B.
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