• ATP World Tour Finals

Nadal in driving seat after battling past Djokovic

Rafael Nadal has won both of his opening two matches © Getty Images

Enlarge

Related Links

• News: Relentless Nadal bulldozes his way into semi-finals
  
• News: Berdych overpowers Roddick to claim first win
  
• Profile: Novak Djokovic | Rafael Nadal

Gallery

Rafael Nadal put one foot in the semi-finals after beating Novak Djokovic at the ATP World Tour Finals in London.

With two wins from his opening two matches, Nadal leapfrogged his opponent to go top of Group A with a hard-fought 7-5 6-2 victory, but an eye injury hindered Djokovic's challenge.

After an early exchange of breaks in the opening set, Djokovic seemed to have the edge in an intriguing battle, but his match was halted by a problem with his contact lens. The world No. 3 took a bathroom break to rectify the problem, but was clearly still hampered by the problem, and never managed to settle back into the match.

In a rematch of the US Open final, it was Nadal who once again came out on top, but Djokovic, top of the group going into the match after winning his opening match against Tomas Berdych in straight sets, came storming out of the blocks.

But the Serb failed to capitalise on Nadal's slow start, and despite two love service games, failed to convert his break point opportunity after piling pressure on Nadal's serve. It proved to be costly as when Nadal finally settled into his rhythm, it was the Spaniard who took first blood after a nailbiting exchange at the net.

But Djokovic responded immediately, breaking back to level the scores before an important hold put him ahead once more. Just as it looked like Djokovic was in the driving seat, the Serb requested attention on a problem with his eye, and after disappearing down the tunnel to fix the issue, it was a different player who re-emerged.

Nadal was unfazed by the lengthy wait for his opponent to reappear, and it was his opponent who struggled to settle back into his game, and after an intense opening encounter, Nadal took the opening set with relative ease.

Djokovic was a broken man, and the intense pressure Nadal came under in the first set was nowhere to be seen as the world No. 1 stormed to a 4-0 lead in the second. When he finally managed to hold his serve, Djokovic celebrated like he had just won the match.

He battled hard, but had left himself with a mountain to climb as Nadal sealed the win after an hour and 51 minutes on court. Djokovic will now look for a win in his final round-robin match against Andy Roddick on Friday to seal his place in the semi-finals.

"My right eye got irritated from 5-5 and I couldn't play. I couldn't see especially on return it was just terrible," Djokovic said. "I don't want to find excuses for my loss but the fact of the matter is that I couldn't play.

"These things happen and it is out of my control but it is unfortunate that it happens in a very important match. Playing with one eye is not enough, especially if you have Nadal across the net."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.