Nadal pays tribute to beaten Murray

Rafael Nadal admitted it needed one of the best performances of his career to defeat Andy Murray 7-6 (7/5) 3-6 7-6 (8/6) in an astonishing semi-final at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London this afternoon.

A packed O2 Arena crowd were on the edge of their seats for three hours and 11 minutes as the match swung this way and that before Nadal finally sealed victory on his third match point.

Murray won five more points and, in the second and third sets in particular, was marginally the better player, but opponents do not come tougher than the Spaniard, who will meet either Roger Federer or Novak Djokovic in tomorrow's final.

A jubilant Nadal was full of praise for Murray, saying on court: "Today I played one of the finest matches of my career. Andy came back well. In the tie-break the only thing I could do was wait for chances.

"I want to congratulate Andy for his attitude. He's going to win a lot of grand slams in my opinion."

Murray, who had beaten Nadal four out of the last five times they had met on hard courts, knew the one thing he could not afford to do was let Nadal dictate proceedings, and some searing groundstrokes showed his intentions were to be the aggressor.

The Scot also had to improve his serving, and the early signs were good there too as he fired down seven aces in his opening four games, losing only four points in the process.

The quality from both players was extremely high and it was not surprising it needed a tie-break to separate them. Nadal made the first move but Murray was not finished and he came out on top after a brilliant rally to make it 5-5.

The Spaniard is very rarely rattled, though, and he composed himself to fashion the first set point, which he sealed with a volley that was agonisingly out of Murray's reach.

A good start to the second set was vital for the world number five, who had never come from a set down to beat Nadal, but instead his level dropped and he found himself facing two break points - the first of the match.

Now was the time for the Scot to show his fighting spirit - and he did, with a brave second serve saving one before a backhand winner took care of the second.

Murray knew his chance would come, and in the seventh game it did - three times over as he moved to 0-40. The bigger the moment, the better the Spaniard plays but, after saving all three break points, he gave away a fourth, and this one Murray took.

Suddenly Nadal looked a little flat-footed and, serving to stay in the set at 3-5, the Spaniard was left helpless as Murray blasted his way to 15-40 and then drilled a backhand winner cross-court to level the match.

The home favourite - and he definitely was a crowd favourite now - had Nadal on the ropes but he did not press home his advantage, and in the third game of the decider the world number one exploited two poor drop shots to break Murray for the first time.

There was still hope for the Scot, though. Nadal looked marginally the more weary of the two and Murray came ever so close to breaking back in the sixth game only for the Spaniard to serve his way out of trouble.

Three games later Nadal had his first match point, on the Murray serve, but for once a cheap error let the 23-year-old off and, with the Spaniard serving for the match, he took full advantage.

In a contest as dramatic as this, it was inevitable there would be a late twist - and so it proved as Murray moved to break point, which he took with a stunning backhand pass.

A second tie-break loomed, and the tension by now was unbearable. Murray was fastest out of the blocks but he could not maintain his advantage and at 4-4 they were back on serve.

Nadal's wrong-footing tactics dumped Murray on his backside to give the top seed another match point at 5-6.

Again the Scot came up with the goods but he could not force a match point of his own, and on his third chance Nadal claimed victory with a trademark forehand winner.