THE task was for Andy Murray to channel his inner Archie Gemmill, produce something of wonder and achieve qualification for the latter stages of a tournament.

Unfortunately, he found his inner Frank Haffey. The Scottish goalkeeper watched as nine goals flew past him in 1961 at Wembley. Murray was similarly stricken and exposed in another part of London. He will not be consoled by the realisation that Archie, despite his sublime moment against the Netherlands in 1978, also came up short.

A capacity crowd in the O2 Arena included the Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho and, to use the football vernacular, Murray was gubbed. Roger Federer beat him 6-0, 6-1 in the final Group B match of the Barclays ATP World Tour finals. It was a massacre that ended just before 9pm. It should have been staged after the watershed for Murray supporters.

For those who do not want to know the stats, look away now. The Scot won 24 points in the match, 16 of them in the second set. His first-serve percentage was ramped up to 45 percent only after he improved significantly in the second set. He hit seven winners. After just 19 minutes, he was 5-0 down and had won a mere six points. And that after winning the first two of the match on Federer's serve.

This is the sort of stuff that makes the Scotland's 9-3 loss to England all those years ago look like a moral victory. If Murray was frustrated and feckless, then Federer was ruthless. He won 100 percent of points on his first serve throughout the match. A footballer would have won 110 percent, but the Swiss player's record is not bad. His forehand was a merciless whip that drew blood from the Scot. His backhand was unbreakable.

The Federer tactic was to attack. It was Murray who regularly hit the net. The Scot thus lost his first set to love since a match against Gael Monfils in Toronto on 2010. He went on to beat the Frenchman but after the 24-minute demolition job by Federer in the first set last night the only consolation for Murray was to win a service game when trailing 5-0 in the second.

The defeat is the worst since he lost by the same scoreline to Novak Djokovic in Miami in 2007. "I was a bit injured then," said the Scot. "There was nothing wrong with me at all this evening."

His game, though, was not in a good condition. His serving is flawed and this puts him on the back foot. A player of Federer's greatness senses weakness and exploits it. He has now beaten Murray four times at the O2 and he matched his opponent's increasing hesitancy with controlled aggression.

Murray had to beat Federer in straight sets to progress. He could not win two games.

It was always a difficult task and its precise details were set up after Milos Raonic pulled out yesterday morning with what he described, rather too graphically, thus: "I have a slight tear on the vastus medialis on my quad. Just a large area of swelling, about five centimetres long, three centimetres wide, and one centimetre deep of swelling and bleeding." Or a thigh strain, as it is known in the fiba' world.

David Ferrer of Spain bounded off the bench to replace the Canadian against Kei Nishikori. In a game of three thirds, Nishikori won 4-6, 6-4, 6-1. Ferrer, the alternate player who just missed out on qualification for the top eight, earned £54,000 for just under two hours on court, about the same rate as an average Barclays Premier League player.

Murray, later, performed like a player far below his normal level. He talked openly about how he set "small goals" in the match, about trying to win two points in a row as he faced unrelenting pressure.

Yet Federer loomed large at the net, was impeccable from the baseline and was invincible on serve. He now goes through to the semi-finals with Nishikori and, crucially, he is almost certain to avoid Djokovic in the last four.

Murray heads to the practise court. He would normally take a break but the state of his game is a pressing matter. He was adamant that this was not a night to be wiped from the memory. "I'm not going to try and forget it; no. When I think about what happened, I'll try to use it."

There was a trace of the traditional Murray steeliness in this. Motivation on his training block in Miami may come from a dispiriting night in London.

"There's some matches you can maybe look on where you might have behaved badly, you know, felt like you hadn't given your best effort or whatever, maybe be embarrassed about that. But I was trying tonight. You know, I tried from the first point through until the last. So it's very frustrating when that's happening to you, obviously, when you're trying to give your best effort."

He said with a dry Caledonian understatement: "It's not a nice way to finish the year . . . "

His immediate plans are simple. "I know I'm going to have to put in a lot of work, a lot of work on my game. If I want to start the season with an opportunity to win in Australia, I'm going to have to put in a lot of work, that's for sure."

He will, however, head to Melbourne ranked within the crucial top eight for draw purposes and with a determination to make himself a contender again.

Curiously, Frank Haffey emigrated to Australia after his London debacle. Be assured. Murray will be back.