Swede Robin Soderling returned to haunt Rafael Nadal yesterday with a 6-4 6-4 victory in their opening Group B round-robin clash at the ATP World Tour finals.
Soderling, who ended Nadal's 31-match winning streak at the French Open this year, again proved a prickly opponent for the Spaniard whose hopes of knocking Roger Federer off the top of the world rankings here are now fading fast.
Nadal said before the start of the season-ending showpiece at London's O2 Centre that he was not bothered about the 945-point gap he needs to bridge to claim the year-end No.1 ranking. What will concern him is that right now his game fails to imtimidate opponents the way it once did.
Tendinitis in his knee, an injury which prevented him from defending his Wimbledon crown this year, and the marital problems of his parents, are both mitigating factors but he has not won a title since May and looks strangely vulnerable.
It is all a far cry from the kind of bicep bulging tennis that helped him claim his sixth grand slam title in Australia at the start of the year and left a crestfallen Federer in tears.
Soderling, making his debut at the tournament courtesy of the withdrawal of American Andy Roddick, adopted similar tactics to those he employed to undo Nadal on Parisian clay and was a worthy winner in one hour 38 minutes.
Quite simply he served big and then took every available opportunity to bludgeon his forehand, a stroke that may not be elegant but was once again too hot for Nadal to handle.
"My level right now is not number one, no?" Nadal told reporters. "He is a big player on this surface and if you are not completely calm and playing well in the important moments it's difficult. I'm not far away from my best level but I need more confidence."
Federer wins
World number one Roger Federer started slowly but finished like an express train on Sunday as he beat Fernando Verdasco 4-6 7-5 6-1 in his opening match at the ATP World Tour Finals.
Spaniard Verdasco deservedly won his first ever set against the Swiss as Federer sprayed errors early on and he had a glimmer of a chance at 5-5 in the second before the match swung.
Federer, who can secure the year-end top ranking in the season-ending showpiece, broke Verdasco in the 12th game of the second set and quickly raced away to victory.