Rafael Nadal insists he can recover from his brutal 6-3, 6-0 defeat against Roger Federer in time to book a place in the semi-finals of the ATP World Tour Finals.

Nadal suffered one of the more chastening losses of his career late Tuesday as Federer swept to victory in just an hour at London’s O2 Arena.

The Spaniard was powerless to prevent Federer delivering one of his all-time great performances, but he can still qualify for the last four with a victory over France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in his final Group B match today.

“Now is not the moment to be down and say goodbye, it is the moment to keep fighting,” Nadal said.

“I’m still in the tournament and I will be in the semi-finals if I win the next match. I didn’t play badly in the first set so I must keep a positive attitude and just accept that he played better than me.”

Nadal admitted it was impossible to live with Federer in that kind of form.

“I accept he played a fantastic level. A very, very top level. Something that only one player like Roger can arrive at,” Nadal said.

“When you play against Federer and he’s playing like this the only way to stay in the match is to get free points with the serve and I couldn’t do that.

“He was too good for me. When I beat him in the Roland Garros final in 2008 it was a similar thing but the difference is that was the final of a Grand Slam and this was a round-robin match.”

The world number two has been struggling with a shoulder injury of late and also felt ill during his victory over Mardy Fish on Sunday.

Berdych wins
• Tomas Berdych remains in the hunt for a place in the semi-finals of the ATP World Tour Finals after he battled back to beat Janko Tipsarevic 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 yesterday.

Berdych, who lost his opening game to Novak Djokovic, looked on the way out when Tipsarevic held a match point in the final set tie-breaker, but the Czech recovered to seal a crucial victory.

Late result: Ferrer bt Djokovic 6-3, 6-1.