World No.2 Andy Murray has said that he believes that Rafael Nadal will once again return to the top of the men’s game next year after enduring a roller-coaster season.
After dropping to his lowest place in the rankings since 2005 earlier this year, Nadal has recently produced a string of strong results, including reaching the finals at the Beijing Open and Swiss Indoors. This week at the ATP Finals the 9-time Grand Slam champion is on the verge of qualifying for the semifinals after grabbing back-to-back wins in his group. The upsurge in the Spaniards performance has led to the Brit believing that he could be a big threat to him in 2016.
“He has won way more matches the last few months. He’s come back from tight situations which is signs he is getting back to where he wants to be”. Murray said.
“I’m sure, even now, beginning of next year, he’ll be playing at a very, very high level again”.
The comments from Murray was shortly after his straight sets loss to Nadal in his second match at the ATP Finals. The defeat was a sharp contrast to his win over the world No.5 earlier this year when he crushed Nadal in straight sets at the Madrid Masters. Looking ahead to 2016, Murray expects the 9-time French Open champion to be a big threat. This is a belief that he thinks many players on the tour have.
“I think a lot of the players still fell, providing he (Nadal) stayed injury-free, that he would raise his game again and compete at the top of the game”.
The defeat has halted Murray’s bid to finish the year second in the world behind Novak Djokovic. The British player needs to get one more win to secure the year-end No.2 position for the first time in his career. Discussing his substandard performance against Nadal, Murray expressed disappointment with one particular aspect of his game.
“I served extremely low percentage, it might be the lowest percentage I have served the whole year in any match. It was like the low 40s, and in the second set like 35%. Yeah, that’s not good enough against someone as good as Rafa”. The 28-year-old admitted.
The Bit also spoke about an unusual moment, which happened during the early part of his match on Wednesday. During one of the changeovers, Murray took out some scissors to cut his hair (click to see video). The unorthodox approach sparked a social media frenzy regarding his action, but Murray was less bothered about it.
“I had some hair in my eye, and I just wanted to get rid of it. That literally took two seconds. That was it”. Murray said.
The action sparked some people suggesting that the world No.2 might not be taking the tournament too seriously as the Davis Cup final swiftly approaches. Despite the theory, Murray has sharply hit back by pledging his full commitment to the tournament, saying that the action ‘is something being made out of nothing’.
Despite suffering the loss, Murray still has a strong chance of qualifying for the last four. His final match in the Ille Natase group will be against French Open champion Stan Wawrinka. It will be the first time that the two players have faced each other since the 2013 Monte Carlo Masters. Currently the world No.2 leads the head-to-head 8-6, however, Wawrinka has won their two most recent meetings.
