Murray puts down Verdasco

Great Britain’s and home team favourite Andy Murray drew a step closer towards a possible semifinal berth with a 6-4, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (3) win against Spain’s Fernando Verdasco at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals here yesterday.

Needing to keep alive his semifinal hopes here, Murray seemed to commit the same range of mistakes as he did against Roger Federer last Tuesday when he faltered big time on his serve. And at the end of the first set, the Scot had got only 47 per cent of his first serves in along with seven aces that were sort of neutralized by the four double faults as he broke the winless Verdasco in the ninth game to take the first set 6-4 in 53 minutes.

The second set was more of a labour, and Murray went down in the tie-break after holding the upper hand and dominating all through. Verdasco upped his game, but made mistakes at crucial junctures to allow the Scot to slip throw in the third set tie-breaker.

Last night’s win ensured that Murray maintains a healthy 8-1 record against the Spanish player and it also keeps Murray’s chances alive for the knock-out semifinals to be held on Saturday. But that would depend on the late night match result between Juan Martin del Potro and Federer. Should the Argentinean win against the top seed, then all three – Federer, Del Potro and Murray will end up with identical 2-1 records – that can only be sorted out after looking at the sets won-lost record by each of them.

Last year in Shanghai, Murray reached the semifinal after beating Andy Roddick, Gilles Simon and Federer, before losing to Davydenko in straight sets to become the first British player in the last four stages since Tim Henman in 1998 (Hannover).

Earlier, top seeds and the World No. 1 pair of Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic ended their year on a winning note with a 6-4, 7-6 (9) win against the third-seeded pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles in a dead rubber Group A match at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals here last night.

Nestor and Zimonjic, who had been shut out of this competition following two successive losses earlier in the week, broke in the fifth for a 3-2 lead and went on to take the opening set 6-4 in 26 minutes.

The second set was closer with Bhupathi and Knowles cutting down on their unforced errors, only to find the top seeds getting their game together at crucial junctures. With no further break coming up Zimonjic and Nestor did enough in the deciding tie-break to hold their nerve to win 11-9 for their only win in this competition. “It’s a great win and it’s a nice way to finish the year,” Nestor said.

“Those guys were obviously playing with nothing to lose. We came in with no pressure as we had already won our group. We will see who finishes second in the other group so that we know who we are going to play on Saturday,” Bhupathi added.

Results: Andy Murray bt Fernando Verdasco 6-4, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (3); Daniel Nestor/Nenad Zimonjic bt Mahesh Bhupathi/Mark Knowles 6-4, 7-6 (9).