LONDON – Spain’s Rafael Nadal lost on Wednesday to Nikolay Davydenko 6-1, 7-6 (7-5) at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals and now has no chance of qualifying for the semifinals of this year-end event.

Playing with more aggression and precision from the baseline than his opponent, Davydenko raced off to a quick lead in the match and then fought off a feisty challenge from the Spaniard in the second set to earn the win.

Things were so bad for Nadal in the first set that he didn’t win a single point on his second serve. The normally fiery Spaniard also looked uncharacteristically dejected, not pumping his fists to celebrate a winning point until 45 minutes into the contest.

The world No. 2 did show much more fight in the second set, twice coming from a break down to even the match, but in the end the Russian’s play from the baseline was too powerful and effective for an out-of-sorts Nadal to overcome.

With Wednesday’s loss and another straight-sets defeat Monday at the hands of Sweden’s Robin Soderling, Nadal failed to make his way out of the World Tour Finals’ round-robin stage for the first time. In two other appearances in the event in 2006 and 2007, he had lost in the semifinals to world No. 1 Roger Federer.

Despite his struggles, Nadal still has a chance to salvage his season in next month’s Davis Cup final, in which defending champion Spain will host the Czech Republic.

Nadal’s 2009 season started off in ideal fashion with a victory at the Australian Open, his first-ever hard-court Grand Slam title.

But his year took a turn for the worse when he suffered a stunning defeat to Soderling at the French Open, a tournament he had won four years in a row, and then a knee injury forced him to withdraw from Wimbledon.

In round-robin action Thursday, Nadal’s countryman, Fernando Verdasco, will take on Scotland’s Andy Murray and Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro will square off against Federer. EFE