November 29, 2010 | By Long Island Tennis Magazine Staff
Roger Federer defeated Rafael Nadal 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 at the ATP World Tour Finals on Sunday at the O2 Arena in London. The top-seeded Nadal was able to break Federer once in the second set, but he appeared to labor as the previous day, Nadal spent three-plus hours against Andy Murray in the semifinals to reach Sunday’s ATP World Tour finals. In their 22-match career, Nadal is 14-8 against Federer . In Grand Slam finals, Nadal is 5-2 against Federer, but Federer has now beaten Nadal all three times they have faced each other in the final tournament of the season.
"I was able to stay offensive. Rallies were never that long,” said Federer. "That kind of maybe frustrated him.”
On match point, Federer hit a forehand winner on the line, but the crowd thought the ball was out as they sat quietly in the arena. Then Nadal started coming to the net to shake hands with Federer, who raised his arms in victory to set off a standing ovation.
“I’m not going to say I lost the match because I was tired," said Nadal. "What I’m going to say and what I feel is I lost the match because I played against a very good Roger Federer in one of his favorite surfaces. And when he’s playing like this, it’s very difficult to stop him, no?”
