RAFAEL Nadal will face Andy Murray in the semi-finals of the ATP World Tour finals after he overcame Tomas Berdych 7-6, 6-1 at London’s O2 Arena.
Berdych did his best to stay with Nadal by forcing the first set to a tie-break, but was powerless to prevent Nadal’s surge to the last four as he was broken twice in a one-sided second set.
Nadal has won all three of his matches to top Group A after earlier victories over Andy Roddick and Novak Djokovic.
He is on course for a showdown with old rival and world number two Roger Federer in the final tomorrow if he can defeat British number one Murray this afternoon.
Like Nadal, Federer has a 100 per cent record and topped Group B by downing David Ferrer, Murray and Robin Soderling. But he or Murray would start as underdog against Nadal in this type of form.
Murray will need to serve well to unsettle Nadal, but he must also match the world number’s one mental toughness.
The Spaniard showed why he has already won the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open this year against a battling Berdych.
He has yet to claim this trophy, but is clearly warming to the 17 000 fans inside the O2 Arena.
In a repeat of their Wimbledon final in July, a match Nadal won 6-3, 7-5, 6-4, the Czech player managed to make a fast start in winning the opening game.
He forced two break points in the second game after racing to the net to convert a delicate volley.
Nadal replied in typical style as he thumped a blistering forehand winner before throwing down an ace to retrieve the situation.
But no matter how hard Nadal tried, he could not shake off Berdych in the opening set.
The pair continued to swap games deep into the set, with Berdych saving two break points to edge 3-2 ahead before Nadal looked like he was ready to walk off the court after an umpire’s decision went against him at 5-6 down.
With the scores level at 15-15, Nadal raised his hand before the umpire intervened to call a Berdych shot out. Berdych rightly challenged the point, with Hawk-Eye showing the ball to have touched the line.
Nadal had already lost the point by raising his hand to stop playing, but claimed he had only halted because of the umpire’s call. Replays showed the umpire to be correct in his debate with Nadal.
Nadal was clearly fuming and made his unhappiness known to the official in his native Spanish. Instead of replaying the point, Berdych was awarded the point.
Berdych was only two points away from the set, but Nadal used the situation as an inspiration in clubbing away several potent groundstrokes to force a tie-break from 15-30 down.
Despite Berdych’s admirable resistance, the momentum was already swinging Nadal’s way in the breaker as he moved 6-3 clear before the world number six produced a double fault to fall a set behind.
Berdych needed to win the match in three sets to keep alive his hopes at the tournament, but he was simply blown away by the ferocity of Nadal’s baseline bullets in the second set.
Holding a 5-1 lead and two breaks, Nadal almost brought the house down when he narrowly missed with a Federer ‘through-the-legs’ winner. By then Berdych was already a spent force and soon succumbed in a set as one-sided as the opening set had been tight.
Nadal enjoyed a 68 percent success rate on his first serve, and won 77 per cent of the points on first serve.
Despite the support of a home crowd in London, Murray faces an unenviable task trying to halt the Nadal juggernaut. (Eurosport)