Former world number one 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 on Friday.

In the semi-finals 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 (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 powerplay proved to hot for Russian world number five Nikolay Davydenko to handle. Nadal won 6-2, 6-3.

The winner of the 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 number one 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.”

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