Nadal loses out (From The Northern Echo)

Nadal loses out

10:44am Tuesday 24th November 2009

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RAFAEL Nadal admitted he does not currently deserve to be number one in the world after losing to Robin Soderling in his first group match at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London.

The Spaniard went into the end-of-season event knowing he had an outside chance of overhauling Roger Federer for the year-end top spot but that surely went with his 6-4 6-4 defeat at the O2 Arena.

‘‘I think the chances I have are not here, not to be number one,’’ he said. ‘‘I think it is not the right moment. My level right now I think is not to be number one.

‘‘Sport is like this. Sometimes you have best moments, sometimes you have little bit worse moments. This probably is one of these moments for me right now.’’ Just like Federer on Sunday against Fernando Verdasco, Nadal dropped his opening service game – although, unlike the world number one, he recovered the break quickly.

But that did not shake Soderling’s belief and a netted Nadal forehand gave the 25- year-old a set point on his opponent’s serve, which he took thanks to an uncharacteristic unforced error from the Australian Open champion.

In the second set it was the Spaniard who broke first but Soderling simply upped the power level and forced three break-back points – taking the final one courtesy of a successful Hawk-Eye challenge.

Although there were flashes of Nadal brilliance – notably some stunning passing shots – they were too infrequent to really put the underdog in trouble.

And, in a repeat of the opening set, the increasingly-frustrated Majorcan found himself staring down the barrel in the 10th game – but this time a break point for Soderling was match point.

Nadal saved the first one but the second chance was gleefully gobbled up by the Swede courtesy of a wayward Nadal backhand.

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