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Murray downs Federer again, meets Nadal in final ABU DHABI — Former world No 1 Roger Federer produced some magical moments, but that wasn’t enough to prevent a fourth loss in his last five matches to the fast-improving Andy Murray here yesterday. In the semifinals of the Capitala World Tennis Championship, an exhibition shootout being played at the Zayed Sports City tennis stadium, Scotsman Murray prevailed in three sets 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (8-6). The world No 4 next takes on the top-ranked player in the world, Rafael Nadal in the final after the Spaniard’s explosive power-play proved too hot for Russian world No 5 Nikolay Davydenko to handle. Nadal won 6-2, 6-3. he winner of the Nadal-Murray final takes home the entire purse of $250,000 in the shootout tournament. Murray, who seemed in pain and clutched his back after the second set, said: “It’s always a challenge playing Roger. I’ve got the better of him on a few occasions, but in the big one we played, at the US Open final, he beat me pretty badly. Hopefully, I’ll get him in a Grand Slam one day. “It will be nice to become the No 1 player in the world, but my aim for 2009 is to win a Grand Slam event, and I feel the Australian Open is my best chance. So, this is a really nice preparation for that.” Nadal also revealed his ambitions for 2009, saying: “The aim really is to be a better player than I was last year and to keep improving. Obviously, I like the position I am in right now and would like to keep it this way as long as possible.” On his match against Davydenko, the Spaniard added: “I have been working hard on my game lately even though I haven’t been playing competitive tennis for the past two months or so. I was delighted with the way I played today and am looking forward to the rest of the season.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             — AFP