Rafael Nadal is "mentally fresh" for the final

Rafael Nadal has reached his first title match at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.

Rafael Nadal insisted on Saturday he is "mentally fresh" after he beat Andy Murray 7-6(5), 3-6, 7-6(6) at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.

"I played very well," said the World No. 1, who will look to lift his eighth tour-level trophy of a career-best season on Sunday. "I think I [am] play[ing] better than ever on this surface. I am fresh mentally.

"When you play indoors against the best players of the world, [there] are more specialists than me. You can play defensive for moments, but you have to come back to the attack. If you're not playing really well, it's impossible.

"For that reason, I say [this] is the most difficult tournament for me to win - not only for the surface [but] for the opponents, too. I am lucky I played really well and I am in the final."

Nadal, who required three hours and 11 minutes to beat Murray, praised his opponent after their 13th meeting (Nadal 9-4).

“It was a fantastic match,” he said. “I am very happy to beat a great champion like Andy. For me [it] is an amazing victory. I am very happy for everything because was a really difficult match against one of the best players of the world.

“His level is unbelievable almost always. If he plays like this, I don't have any doubt he going to have big chances to win very important titles.

“He's [a] very talented player because he can do everything. His serve for moments was unstoppable. His defence was unbelievable. He's very fast. He sees the ball very quick, before the rest of the players I think.”

Nadal has a 71-9 match record on the season, highlighted by three Grand Slam championship titles at Roland Garros (d. Soderling), Wimbledon (d. Berdych) and the US Open (d. Djokovic).

He is the first Spaniard to reach the title match at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals since David Ferrer in 2007.

Courtesy: ATP