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Rafael Nadal

LONDON. — 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 beat David Ferrer 6-4 6-4 in the day’s other Group A match.

Nadal has admitted he doubted whether he would ever recapture his best form when he was forced out of the sport for over seven months with a serious knee injury. Since returning in February, his results have been spectacular.

He arrived in London with a career-best record of 72 wins and six losses for the year, 10 tournament victories and Grand Slam titles at the French and US Opens that took his tally of majors to 13 — four behind all-time leader Roger Federer.

“Today it was important to secure the number one at the end of the season,” said Nadal.
“During all the season I said it’s not my goal, but the real thing is after all the success I had, after all that happened last year, I felt I deserved to be there at the end of the season. It’s one of the best things that I did in my career — to come back to number one after three seasons. That’s very difficult in our sport, and after a very important injury.

“That’s an emotional thing for me, for sure.” 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. — BBC Sport.