Rafael Nadal beats out of sorts Stan Wawrinka in straight-sets at ATP World Tour Finals in London

  • Rafael Nadal beats Stan Wawrinka 6-3 6-2 in ATP World Tour finals match 
  • Wawrinka and Nadal both broken to love in first service games of match
  • Nadal recovers from losing first service game to take first set 6-3
  • Wawrinka saves seven break points to win opening game of second set
  • But Nadal breaks twice in final set to seal comfortable straight-sets win

By Stuart Fraser At The O2 Arena

Published: 17:05 EST, 16 November 2015 | Updated: 07:06 EST, 17 November 2015

In a season which Rafael Nadal's confidence has taken a battering at times, he received a much-needed boost with a straight-sets victory against Stan Wawrinka in his opening match at the ATP World Tour Finals on Monday.

Just ten days ago, Wawrinka had beaten Nadal in the quarter-finals of the Paris Masters. But this time the tables were turned in London as the Swiss suffered a meltdown in the second set, going down 6-3, 6-2 in one hour and 23 minutes.

Nadal's victory means that he will take on Andy Murray on Wednesday afternoon after the British No 1 earlier beat David Ferrer. 

Rafael Nadal acknowledges the crowd after his straight-sets victory over Stan Wawrinka on Monday

Nadal celebrates after clinching match points against Wawrinka at the O2 Arena in London

Wawrinka is at full stretch as he attempts to return a shot from Nadal in their match at the O2 Arena

Nadal clenches in his fist after winning a point during his match against Wawrinka

Nadal clenches in his fist after winning a point during his match against Wawrinka

The winner will give himself a good chance to be the first to progress from Group Ilie Nastase into the semi-finals of the year-end championships. 

Nadal said: 'I thought I played well. I think I played the way that I wanted to play. I played aggressive, I played with not many mistakes. Just the thing I can do a little bit better is serving.  

'I am happy with the way that I am working, happy with the way that I am competing in the last two, three months. For me it is important to keep going the same way. 

'It is obvious when you are coming from a bad period, not everything will be like this. But in general, the dynamic is very positive.

Every day for me now is an opportunity to enjoy on court, enjoy the competition, something that I missed for moments this year. I just try my best in every single match.' 

Nadal unleashes one of his trademark forehands on route to his 6-3 6-2 victory over the Swiss in London

Wawrinka looked out of sorts has he made a high number of unforced errors in the round-robin match

Nadal hits returns a shot from Wawrinka on his backhand side in his comfortable victory on Monday

There was once a time when there was an inevitable sense about matches between Nadal and Wawrinka.

Nadal remarkably won the first 26 sets in their head-to-head history before Wawrinka finally ended the rot by winning the 2014 Australian Open final for his first Grand Slam title.

Wawrinka was seen as the slight favourite coming into Monday's match having won three of their last four meetings and he made the perfect start with an immediate break to love.

Nadal responded with a break of his own, however, and he went on to claim the opening set as Wawrinka's game and concentration quickly unravelled.

Although Wawrinka saved seven break points at the start of the second set, his frustration was evident as he raced between points, giving the impression to some that he was not giving his full effort.

The Swiss world No 4 was broken twice in the second set as Nadal raced to victory in London

Nadal walks out on to court ahead of his first match in this year's ATP World Tour Finals

Nadal walks out on to court ahead of his first match in this year's ATP World Tour Finals

At one point, it prompted respected television commentator Jason Goodall to call his performance an 'embarrassment'.

With Wawrinka showing no form of patience whatsoever during the course of the rallies, his unforced errors count ended at 35 as Nadal comfortably closed out the victory.

It continued the rather unfortunate theme of one-sided contests here with 14 of the last 16 round-robin matches at The O2 finishing in straight sets.

Wawrinka said: 'I don't think it was a great level. When something goes wrong today, everything went wrong. Just everything went the wrong way

'It was just a really bad day at the office. For sure, if you look, it's a really bad match. Bad behaving on the second set, going too fast. Things that are not too great on myself.

'Hopefully I can put it back together and get ready for the next match. It's the last tournament of the year, so I don't want to leave this week. I want to stay as much as possible.' 

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