ANDY Murray blamed his errant serving and not a bad hair day for his 6-4, 6-1 defeat to Rafa Nadal at the ATP World Tour Finals in London. The Scot took advantage of a change of ends to produce a pair of scissors from his bag and trim an unruly lock of hair from his brow during this defeat at the round robin stage, which leaves him requiring a victory against Stan Wawrinka on Friday to be sure of his place in the last four. While the World No 2 admitted the troublesome curl had been getting in his eyes, he bristled at the suggestion that his emergency impromptu trim had been anything other than a minor irritation during his defeat to the resurgent Mallorcan. It should probably also be pointed out that Murray's hair these days is tame considering some of his previous stylings.
"I don't know why such minor things make such a big deal to you guys," said Murray. "I had some hair in my eye, and I just wanted to get rid of it. That literally took two seconds. That was it. It was nothing to do with next week [the Davis Cup final] or anything to do with the outcome of this match. I started the match extremely well, I think. I played a very good first game. Although I got broke in the second game, it was a good game. I was hitting the ball well. I held all the way through to 4-All from that change of end. So it wasn't like it was something that affected me at all after it happened."
While the incident captured the attention of the modern media cycle, Murray correctly pointed out that of far more relevance to the defeat was a first-serve percentage which stood at just 43%. With Nadal winning two thirds of all points on his second serve, that was a recipe for disaster against a player who seems to be approaching his best form after spending much of 2015 gradually working his way back from illness and injury.
"He's clearly playing better tennis now than a few months ago," said Murray. "Also I didn't help myself out there. I served an extremely low percentage, maybe the lowest percentage I have served the whole year in any match. That's not good enough against someone as good as Rafa."
The Scot, who now faces the French Open champion Wawrinka on both to prolong his interest in this tournament until the weekend and secure his status as year-end World No 2, denied his focus had been affected unduly by thoughts of next weekend's Davis Cup final but did admit he had been left nonplussed by the entire Aljaz Bedene affair. The ITF ruled the Slovenian-born British No 2 out of the Davis Cup final when he and his agent flew all the way to Prague on Tuesday only for the governing body to postpone his hearing until March, after the first round of the 2016 event.
"From a personal point of view, I’ve spent a lot of time talking about it and it was a complete waste of my time as well," said Murray. "For Aljaz – just tell him you haven’t made the decision and don’t have him fly all the way over there just to tell him you haven’t decided. For him it’s disappointing. And I would imagine for Leon that is pretty frustrating, the way it has all worked out."
Nadal and Murray are friendly rivals and the Mallorcan, a man with his own form for hair adjustments, couldn't resist making his own contribution on the issue of the mid-match haircut. "Was not at the right time to work that out," said the Spaniard. "He has practice before to try to work that out."
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