It's been a rough year for Rafael Nadal.
He lost a match at the French Open for only the second time in his career and saw his ranking slide as low as No. 10 -- something that hadn't happened in more than a decade.
But for a moment Monday evening in London, Nadal was the exuberant, scissor-kicking Rafa tennis fans can still see in their mind's eye. In the third game of the second set, Nadal raced toward the net and scooped up a drop shot from Stan Wawrinka and flicked a lovely little lob. Wawrinka couldn't track it down, and Rafa literally leapt for joy, throwing in a vintage fist pump.
The No. 5-seed Nadal mashed No. 4 Wawrinka 6-3, 6-2 to win his first match at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. Technically, it was the first singles upset of the tournament.
At 29, Nadal's body may be banged up, but the effort is still there. He worked hard, accumulating 15 break-point opportunities against Wawrinka and converting four -- three more than Wawrinka.
Wawrinka's career breakthrough came in Paris earlier this year when he won his first Grand Slam singles title. That was followed, he said, by a period of depression. Of the 10 tournaments the 30-year-old Swiss athlete has played since, he won only one, against a so-so field in Tokyo.
Earlier in the day, Andy Murray took care of David Ferrer in relative routine fashion. Here's a look at Day 2 at the ATP World Tour Finals in a nutshell:
Murray above the surface
Forgive Murray for a slightly scruffy start against Ferrer. In advance of next week's Davis Cup final against Belgium, Murray has been splitting his practice time on the O2 hard courts and the kind of clay he'll see in Ghent, Belgium.
"Yeah, I mean, first couple of games my timing was a little bit off," Murray explained. "But I got it back pretty quickly, which was pleasing.
"Obviously it's a different surface here, but playing matches against the best players in the world is also fantastic preparation."
Indeed, Murray handled the Spaniard 6-4, 6-4 to win his first round-robin match in London.
"If you're looking for a little bit of rhythm, he's also a guy who makes you hit a lot of balls," Murray said. "The rallies are often quite long, so you can get into a rhythm against him. So that was good."
With one more win, Murray will guarantee himself a career-best year-end ranking of No. 2. For seven consecutive years, Murray has finished between No. 3 and No. 6; this would be the first time he's ever finished ahead of both Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
Well, it depends...
Here's Ferrer on why there were so many dropshots in his match with Andy Murray: "Depends of the moment. Depends of the match. Depends of the opponent. Depends of the point. Sometimes in the indoor court there are a lot of drop shots, sometimes there are not. Depends of the match."
On tap for Tuesday
Buckle up those chinstraps -- it's time for Djokovic-Federer XLIII. The second match of the day (Tuesday at 3 p.m. ET on ESPN3) is the 43rd between these two worthy combatants, and the winner will emerge with a tenuous 22-21 career head-to-head lead.
Djokovic has won four of six this year, with Federer scoring back in February in Dubai and this summer in Cincinnati. Djokovic won both of their major meetings -- in the finals at Wimbledon and the US Open -- and in the Masters venues of Indian Wells and Rome.
In the other contest, Tomas Berdych and Kei Nishikori meet in what is essentially a Group Stan Smith elimination match.