Nadal crashes out of ATP Finals with second defeat

But the Spanish star, who has struggled with injury for most of the season, took the defeat in his stride.

He said: "To be out of the Finals, well, that's sport and everything can happen.

"I didn't arrive to this tournament with the full confidence that you need to win these matches. In the moments I had to play well, I didn't play well.

"I made mistakes, I fought a lot, both matches I fought. I tried my best all the time but it wasn't enough to win these matches."

Nadal went down 6-1, 7-6 to the Russian in the second of his round-robin games and looked well short of his best.

Davydenko played superb tennis throughout and Nadal simply couldn't live with his opponent, losing two service games in the first set.

Nadal rallied in the second and made more of a match of it but made crucial errors in the tie-break to hand victory to Davydenko.

Meanwhile Defending champion Novak Djokovic was shocked by the unfancied Robin Soderling.

The Swede sealed a semi-final spot by beating the Serb 7-6, 6-1, following up his win over Nadal on Monday.

His performances are all the more remarkable as Soderling was not even supposed to be here, only being included as a late replacement for the injured Andy Roddick.

He said: "It's great. I won two matches in straight sets against the World number two and number three. I couldn't have asked for anything more.

"So far I'm enjoying it a lot. But there's still at least two more matches to go. I hope to do really well in those two as well."

This afternoon Andy Murray is back in action at the arena and the British hope needs to produce a convincing win over Fernando Verdasco to keep his hopes of a semi-final place alive.