Spain's Rafael Nadal (L) hugs Britain's Andy Murray following their singles semifinal at the ATP World Tour Finals in London November 27, 2010.
LONDON, Nov. 27 -- World No. 1 Rafael Nadal reached the final of the ATP World Tour Finals for the first time after beating British top ace Andy Murray through tiebreak in the deciding set on Saturday.
Nadal, 24, edged Murray 7-5 in the tiebreak of the first set, then lost to his aggressive opponent 6-3 in the following set. The duo fought hard in the deciding set with each one broke once, but the Spaniard managed to came from 3-0 down to win the tiebreak again in 8-6.
"I'm disappointed to lose, but it was a great match," said the 23-year-old Murray, who also lost to Nadal in the semifinals at this year's Wimbledon Championships.
"I was obviously very disappointed with the way I played against Roger," said Murray, who suffered straight set defeat to Swiss World No. 2 Roger Federer in the group stage. "I think the match I played today is how I want to play all the time."
"I think Andy played at very good level almost all the time, and I was a little bit lucky in the beginning of the third with
1-0 for him and love-30. He had two mistakes, very important mistakes for me in those moments because I was a little bit tired," said Nadal who were tough enough to save his service in the second game of the third set at that situation then broke in the third game.
But Murray didn't let his momentum down and finally took one back in the 10th game to make a tie at 5-5. Then, he started the tiebreak greatly by leading at 3-0, but were still not strong enough to hold back Nadal, who sealed the win 8-6.
Nadal is going to face the winner between Roger Federer and Serbian world No. 3 Novak Djokovic in the final on Sunday.
(Reuters)
