LONDON -- Rafael Nadal will find it harder to keep playing down his chances of winning the World Tour Finals after picking apart Andy Murray in ruthless fashion at the O2 Arena.
The Spaniard dismantled world No.4 Stan Wawrinka in similar style on Monday and exuded renewed confidence once more in another aggressive display, securing a second win in three days against a higher-ranked player, beating No.2 Murray 6-4, 6-1 in one hour and 32 minutes.
Nadal's passage to the semifinals as group winner was confirmed later on Wednesday after Wawrinka's 7-5, 6-2 win over David Ferrer. The result effectively sets up a play-off between Murray and the Swiss for the second qualification spot on Friday, with Roger Federer likely lying in wait in the last four.
Murray's wait to clinch his best year-end ranking goes on, as does his barren run against world No.5 Nadal in London -- that particular record now stands at 0-5, taking in three defeats on the Wimbledon grass and now two on this hard court.
The World Tour Finals remains the only significant title missing from Nadal's trophy cabinet. He has completed a career Grand Slam among his 14 majors overall, and won an Olympic gold medal and four Davis Cup titles with Spain. Yet he has never triumphed at the season finale in six previous attempts, having also withdrawn four times due to injury.
"If we didn't know that I lost a lot this year and I played bad for a lot of moments, and we arrive here, for example, with a normal year playing well, probably we would be here talking that I am playing great and I am at my normal level, competing against the best players," Nadal said.
"Knowing what happened during the whole year, I don't know how far I am [away]. I won two great matches against two players, top-four players, in a tough surface for me."
Nadal added: "This year I have been more worried about myself than the opponents for a lot of matches. That [makes it] impossible to compete at the highest level. Today I feel free."
Nadal is now 15-4 since the U.S. Open with his impressive hard-court form, which has taken in finals in Beijing and Shanghai, continuing in London.
After the dark days of slumping to No.10 for eight weeks for the first time since 2005, Nadal is once again full of positive energy, even if there were no mid-air fist pumps this time around as there were against Wawrinka.
Murray had looked rusty in his opening win over David Ferrer after spending most of the build-up to the tournament practising on clay in preparation for the Davis Cup final. Here there were no such excuses; Nadal was simply sharper and quicker to the ball throughout.
In what was their first meeting since Murray won the Madrid Masters final in May, the pair immediately traded breaks at the start of the first set.
Murray gave himself an impromptu haircut at the first changeover but it had little positive effect on his play -- he never earned another sniff at a break point on Nadal's serve. He was forced to save a further five break points of his own over his next two service games, but Nadal was more ruthless at the next time of asking, breaking to love at 5-4 to take what had been a tight first set in just two minutes short of an hour.
Murray coughed up another three break points in his first service game of the second set and hit a wayward backhand to hand Nadal a 2-0 advantage. Nadal then picked off a fading Murray for the double break and 5-1 before finishing the job.
"I think he always is [a favourite] at the big events," Murray said of Nadal. "For a few months this year he was struggling for form a little bit. But almost every player goes through that at some stage during their career. A lot of the media had a lot of doubts about him. A lot of the players still felt, providing he stayed injury-free, that he would raise his game again and compete at the top of the game. So I'm not really surprised by that.
"He played better today than he did when I played him earlier in the year [in Madrid]. Rafa always practices pretty hard from what I see. He's won a lot more matches in the second half of the year. He's clearly playing better tennis now than a few months ago."
Murray now faces Wawrinka in a winner-takes-all clash on Friday -- it will be their first meeting since the quarterfinals of the 2013 U.S. Open when the Swiss stunned him in straight sets, just two months after his Wimbledon triumph.
"It's tough to say what he's thinking," Wawrinka said of Murray in his press conference. "If he's completely focused or not. If he's already thinking too much about Davis Cup. It's impossible to know exactly what we can expect from him for Friday.
"For sure if I look the match today, I think was a little bit flat. The fact he practiced so much after Paris on clay to get the rhythm doesn't help him to feel completely fresh this week. We'll see. Maybe he's going to feel more relaxed, no pressure, go for it more, or maybe he's not going to be completely here. We'll know how he is. If he's mentally not really here, then he's a different player."