Unassuming Ferrer marches on at World Tour finals

After his 6-4, 7-5 win over Andy Murray at the ATP World Tour finals on Monday, David Ferrer had stated that his opponent was a better player than him, but that he had been stronger mentally when it counted. On Wednesday evening, after thrashing world number one Novak Djokovic 6-3, 6-1 to assure his place in the semifinals, the Spaniard simply shrugged. "The gesture was for surprise," the world number five said. "I beat the world number one in two sets."

There is little doubt that both Murray, who subsequently withdrew from the tournament with a groin injury, and Djokovic had not been at their best, but that takes nothing away from the Spaniard's achievement; Ferrer's pre-season training regime would make Rocky feign 'flu and he has finished the year strongly with one quarterfinal appearance, two semifinals and a final.

Only one outcome from the last round of matches in Group A on Friday can prevent Ferrer finishing top: if Murray's replacement Janko Tipsarevic defeats his compatriot Djokovic and Tomas Berdych beats the Spaniard. Whether or not finishing in first place will be a blessing or a curse is open to question, with Roger Federer awaiting the runner-up and one of Rafa Nadal and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who played in Thursday's night session, facing the group winner.

"It was the worst match I've played this season so far, definitely," said Djokovic, who sprayed 33 unforced errors around the O2 Arena. "All credit to my opponent, he played a great match, but I just wasn't there."

The world number one said he would have to play "50 percent better" to reach the semifinals and Tipsarevic showed against Berdych in a three-set thriller earlier Wednesday that he is not in London to just make up the numbers, even if he has no chance of qualifying himself, having played just one match.

For Ferrer, who has never won a Masters 1000 event, the latter stages of the season-ending showpiece is not terra incognita: in 2007, on hard courts in Shanghai, he defeated Djokovic, Nadal and Richard Gasquet in the round-robin phase then Andy Roddick in the semifinals, losing just one set over the four matches. In the final he lost to Federer, who is chasing a record sixth title this year.

"I think today [Wednesday] was maybe my best match of the season," Ferrer said. As the only player with an unblemished score card in London, there may yet be more to come.