Andy Murray missed out on the semi-finals by one game amid dramatic scenes at the ATP World Finals on Thursday.

Murray was desperately unlucky as the one possible result which could have put him out of the competition, occurred.

The world number four earlier had an opportunity to secure his place in the last four against Fernando Verdasco. Murray needed to win in straight sets to clinch automatic qualification and looked like doing so for a set and a half but Verdasco grimly clung on, playing the pressure points exceptionally well. Murray became progressively frustrated as time and time again the Spaniard unleashed a huge serve or a crunching winner on a big point but with the help of a vocal home crowd he secured a 6-4, 6-7, 7-6 three set win.

That left him awaiting the result of the Roger Federer versus Juan Martin Del Potro match to discover his fate. When the Argentine swept through the first set 6-2 it looked as if he and Murray were going through. However Federer had other ideas and fought back to level the match.

A Del Potro three set win meant that all three players would be tied on two wins apiece and it would come down to the number of games won, to separate them. However the odds were still very much in Murray’s favourite. The only final set score that would send him out was 6-3 to Del Potro and unbelievably it happened !

Federer was sympathetic to Murray’s fate and recalled how if the Scot had won one more game in their round robin match on Tuesday, he would now be through.

“How can we imagine that we all play three sets and it comes down to a couple of games?” the Swiss said. 

"He had it maybe on his racquet when he served against me at 5-1 in the third [on Tuesday]. You have to go back there, that maybe if he held that game all of a sudden he gets through. But that's not the way you can think. I definitely try to push myself to close out matches as quickly as I can against fellow rivals because you never know when you might need those games. They might come back in the match and turn the match around completely.  It happened to me once this year against Tsonga - I was 5-1 up in the third and I ended up losing. You always have to push yourself. The system is the way it is."