Nadal outlasts Ferrer in battle of Spaniards at ATP Finals

Rafael Nadal emulated Roger Federer by winning a third successive round-robin match at the ATP World Tour Finals on Friday, edging fellow Spaniard David Ferrer at the O2 Arena.

With Nadal already in the semi-finals from the Ilie Nastase Group and Ferrer going home after two defeats, it could have been a non-event but the packed arena was treated to the longest match of the group stage with Nadal winning 6-7(2), 6-3, 6-4 after two hours 37 minutes.

Nadal, twice a runner-up at the Tour Finals, will face Serbia’s world number one Novak Djokovic in Saturday’s last four.

It looked as though the Spaniard might be in for an easy ride when he won 10 of the first 11 points, breaking Ferrer twice, but his 33-year-old opponent is renowned as one of the sport’s best battlers and he hit back to win a tiebreak.

World number five Nadal, who had already beaten fourth-ranked Stanislas Wawrinka and number two Andy Murray, buckled down though and levelled the match before breaking the Ferrer serve in the final game of the contest.