HAVING more than fulfilled his commitment to the ATP World Tour Finals, Andy Murray can now give Britain's efforts to claim the Davis Cup for the first time since 1936 his undivided attention. The World No 2 guaranteed himself the weekend off when his run at the showpiece event on the professional tour came to an end in the o2 Arena last night, courtesy of a 7-6 (4), 6-4 defeat to Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland in just shy of two hours. Some wags were suggesting he could almost smell the moules-frites and waffles already.

While it continued what might be said to be a below-par run at this tournament for a player of his class, as only twice in six attempts in London has he reached the semi-finals, huge mitigation lies in the fact that the 28-year-old has had to mix training here this week with practice sessions on an indoor clay court specially designed to mimic the conditions at the Flanders Expo Centre in Ghent next weekend. Indeed, it wasn't so long ago that the Scot was insisting that his entire participation in this event was a "question mark", but no-one couldn't question his application here.

"I wanted to try to win the tournament," said Murray, "so you have to try your best right through to the end but it wasn't enough. To be honest I made too many errors. The only positive for me is that I have come away from this week injury free and I have a couple more days to prepare for Belgium."

This was the first meeting between these two double Grand Slam winners since the 2013 US Open and Murray simply isn't in the business of allowing his main rivals at the top of the sport a free run. While the French Open champion ultimately closed the head-to-head between the two men to 8-7 in Murray's favour, the Scot competed ferociously, particularly during the opening set, battling back from a break of serve down only to lose concentration when he had a 4-2 lead in the tie-break. He also raged against the dying of the light from a double break down in the second, grimacing and holding his lower back after one lengthy rally, much to the consternation of Leon Smith.

Indeed, the only suggestion that his thoughts might just have been elsewhere was the fact that he had relocated his extended entourage from courtside to high above the commentary positions. Perhaps this was to mimic the hostile conditions which he will experience out in Belgium. "I just felt like sometimes when the box is extremely close to the court I can find it a distraction so I thought it would be better to have them sit further away," he said.

The Scot emerged confidently, in front of a neutral crowd, but unable to capitalise on the two break points that came his way in the third game, he soon found himself 5-3 in arrears. But he roared back immediately and soon we were into a tie-break, Wawrinka reeling off five straight points from 4-2 down to take it. A smashed racket was an emblem of his frustration at his inability to capitalise on the break back points he had as Wawrinka served for the match.

Today the focus shifts to Rafa Nadal, as he renews his rivalry with Novak Djokovic and aims to join Andre Agassi as the only man to have completed the set of all of the top prizes in the sport. The 29-year-old from Mallorca maintained his perfect record at the o2 this year with a 6-7 (2-7), 6-4, 6-4 win against David Ferrer, a match which at two hours 37 minutes was the longest of the tournament.

It leaves only a short turnaround until his semi-final but an invigorated Nadal savoured the prospect of a record 46th meeting with the Serb, against whom he still leads the series 23-22.

Ideal preparation or not, the Mallorcan professed himself delighted with his third straight win against a top eight player. He is bidding to join Agassi in the list of players to win all four Grand Slams, an Olympic gold medal and an ATP Tour finals, but he will have to reverse the form book against Djokovic to do so, having been soundly beaten 6-2, 6-2 by the Serb just a few weeks back in the final at Beijing. "Maybe I will be tired," said Nadal. "But I am not worried about it. Three straight wins against top-eight players, that's a great news for me."

Meanwhile, it was revealed yesterday that Murray will appear in the inaugural edition of Tie Break Tens, a new, quick-fire tennis tournament which is to be staged at the Royal Albert Hall on December 5. He will be joined by World No.7 David Ferrer, former World No.4 Tim Henman, and rising Briton Kyle Edmund in a six-man field for the event, which sees all matches settled on a first-to-10 tie-break.

Glasgow, meanwhile, has missed out in the running for Great Britain's first round tie in the 2016 Davis Cup. The LTA announced yesterday that the first match after next weekend's historic final would be played at the Barclaycard Arena in Birmingham.