What a performance earlier today by Rafael Nadal who showed his mental toughness once again by turning away Andy Murray 76(5), 36, 76(6).

The Barclays ATP World Tour Finals semifinal thriller went 3:11 and it was well worth every minute.

“When you play indoors against the best players of the world, [there] are more specialists than me,” Nadal said. “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.

“Today is the reason why I play tennis,” London favorite Murray said. “I think the match today is how I want to play all the time. So I want to try and I guess build on that for next year. It was a great match to finish the year. But I need to improve because I’m competing with the two best players of all time. So if I want to win these tournaments, I want to win the Grand Slams, I need to get better.”

Nadal and Roger Federer will clash tomorrow for a 22nd time (Nadal leads 14-7) at 12:30pm Eastern.

Nadal’s ATP Interview:

Here’s a Murray vs. Nadal highlight rip: