Dominant Federer crushes Nadal for semi-final spot

By Bill Scott Nov 22, 2011, 22:32 GMT

London - Roger Federer rampaged over Rafael Nadal and into the first of the semi-final spots at the ATP World Tour Finals on Tuesday with a crushing 6-3, 6-0 masterclass, which took a mere one hour.

The defeat included the second recent 6-0 thrashing inflicted on one-time court king Nadal after losing a final set by a similar scoreline to Andy Murray in the October Tokyo final. The loss was the worst ever for Nadal against the Swiss and lifts Federer to 9-17 in their series (4-0 indoors).

'It was a great match for me basically from start to finish,' said Federer. 'I was able to do what I was hoping to do: dominate from the baseline, play close to the baseline, serve well, take his time away.'

'I've also felt the power of Rafa in the past, so this is a great match for me, a nice win, clearly.'

Federer, the 16-time Grand Slam finalist from Switzerland, moved to within two wins of a potential record sixth year-end title with one group match to play before the Saturday semi-finals.

The 30-year-old utterly controlled the short, sharp contest from start to finish, ending with 28 winners - four for Nadal - and just eight unforced errors. Nadal never got a sniff of a break point.

The comprehensive win ended a run of three straight losses this season to Nadal, with their last meeting a French Open final five months ago won by the king-of-clay Spaniard.

Federer showed the majestic form which has carried him to trophies in his last two events (Basle and Paris) after taking six weeks off from late September in a strategic move to rest and recover for a 2011 finishing sprint.

Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga found his winning touch 7-6 (7-4), 6-1 over Mardy Fish to send the American to a second straight defeat.

'It's good to play against (Fish), he's really aggressive and plays a nice game,' said Tsonga. 'He comes to the net and plays differently than the others. It's nice to watch but not to play against.'

Home hero Andy Murray had to quit the event with a groin muscle strain suffered eight days ago, the Scot's breakthrough year was over with a whimper a month after sweeping to three consecutive Asian titles.

The world number three, who lost his opening match on Monday, said that after testing himself and speaking for hours on the pros and cons of trying to play on, he had to pull the plug.

The Scot reached the semi-finals last year. He will be replaced in his round robin group by Serb Janko Tipsarevic.

'It's disappointing to finish the year that way, maybe having lost or not qualified for the semis or the final or whatever,' said 2010 semi-finalist Murray.

'But not being able to play is what's most frustrating. You work the whole year to be part of this group of players.'

Murray suffered his problem last Monday during a London training session. Doctors had told him he should take a week to ten days of total rest - time that he did not have as the elite year-end event began at the weekend.

He said it would be useless to try and carry on further, 'I never want to pull out of tournaments, especially one of this size. But it's a decision I kind of had to make because I was probably going to do myself more damage.'

Read more about Great Britain