Andy Murray cuts hair during ATP World Tour Final match

Novak Djokovic will face Andy Murray in the final of the Paris Masters after the irrepressible Serb stretched his winning run to 21 matches by seeing off Stan Wawrinka on Saturday.

Nadal, back at the Tour Finals after missing out a year ago because of appendicitis surgery, dropped his opening service game to love but then broke Wawrinka's as the first nine points all went the way of the receiver. Immediately after his tournament, Andy and his brother Jamie fly out to Belgium to attempt to bring the Davis Cup back to Britain for the first time since 1936.

Spaniard Ferrer led 3-1 and served for the opening set at 5-3 before a double fault offered Wawrinka an avenue back into the match.

Defeat for Murray would leave him free to focus on the Davis Cup, but he nonetheless wants to make it through and hopes his heavy loss to Nadal will have provided a jolt.

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.

"My game started to feel better out there", said Wawrinka.

Murray agreed. "He obviously played better today than he did when I played him earlier in the year", Murray said. "For me to be able to play at that level against such a great player is good news", Nadal, who will top the group whatever happens against Ferrer tonight, told reporters.

Throughout the match Nadal overshadowed the Scotsman, and during the changeover the world number two decided he'd had enough, taking the initiative to find scissors in his bag and cut off his bothersome fringe. It was world no. 5's 60th match win of the year. "It was in the low 40s in the second set, like 35 percent". He wasted no time in cutting it, saying it only took him two seconds to get it done.

The trend for singles matches this week has been for a competitive first set to be followed by a whitewash of a second, but Nishikori took the attack to Federer to retrieve the break and then benefited from his opponent's lapse in concentration.

The Swiss won the first set in just under an hour's time, with both the players engaging in a tight duel. “But I didn’t really help myself.

The result (on the court) means Murray will in all likelihood have to beat Stan Wawrinka in his final round-robin group game to progress to the semi-finals.

Nadal hit 55% backhands and 45% forehands for the match, which is extremely uncharacteristic from the former World No. 1.