Djokovic on the brink of qualifying

Novak Djokovic nearly assured himself a place in the last four with a straight set 7-6 (5), 6-3 win against Rafael Nadal at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 Arena here yesterday.

Though Djokovic has won, he will still have to wait for Group B leader Robin Soderling to do him a favour by beating Nikolay Davydenko in the final round robin match of the night.

Going into this match, and with Nadal out of the fray with no wins, both Davydenko and Djokovic were tied with an identical 1-1 win/loss record. Soderling has already sealed a semifinal place as group winner, so the final picture will be clear only after the late night match between Soderling and Davydenko.

Knowing that only a win will do him any good, Djokovic started his match against Nadal in right earnest with a break against the former World No.1 in the very first game.

But the Serb failed to latch on to this advantage as he was broken back by the left-hander from Spain, who has been struggling with his game coming into this tournament from an abdominal strain injury.

After that both went neck-and-neck till the tie-breaker which the Serb dominated and won 7-5.

In the second Nadal took a medical time-out to get some treatment on his lower back, but by then he was already in arrears 1-2. Djokovic upped the tempo a bit and took the set and match 6-3.

Earlier, Max Mirnyi and Andy Ram had assured themselves of a place in the doubles semifinals against Mark Knowles and Mahesh Bhupathi with a 7-6, 6-4 win over fourth seeds Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy.

Results: Novak Djokovic bt Rafael Nadal 7-6 (5); 6-3; Max Mirnyi/Andy Ram bt Lukas Dlouhy/Leander Paes 7-6 (1), 6-4.