Stan Wawrinka showed his fighting spirit to set up a winner-takes-all clash with Andy Murray for a place in the semi-finals at the ATP World Tour Finals.

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Wawrinka was heavily criticised for his performance against Rafael Nadal on Monday but he recovered from 5-2 down in the opening set against David Ferrer to win 7-5 6-2.

That result means Nadal has won the group following his 6-4 6-1 victory over Murray earlier, and the winner of the clash between the Scot and Wawrinka on Friday will qualify for the last four in second place.

Wawrinka said: “It was a tough battle. It’s always difficult to play David and I’m really happy. I didn’t start well but I started to find my game.

“Andy is an amazing player. He’s number two this year, he’s had an amazing year. He’s always tough to play, especially at home. I’ll look forward to that match.”

It looked like being another bad day for Wawrinka when Ferrer broke serve to lead 3-1, and the Spaniard then withstood pressure from his opponent to save break points and make it 5-2.

But Ferrer’s Achilles heel this season has been his serve and, once he double-faulted on set point in the ninth game, it all unravelled.

The seventh seed netted a forehand to give up the break, and then another double fault handed Wawrinka a second successive break, which he converted into the set.

As with so many matches at the tournament over the past couple of years, once the first set had been decided, the second was a virtual non-event.

Wawrinka broke serve for a third straight time in the opening game and quickly pulled away.

His first two match points went begging, the second when he sent a straightforward-looking smash to the far reaches of the O2 Arena, but he clinched it on the third.

Even then there was a stroke of luck. Ferrer thought Wawrinka’s shot was out – a suspicion HawkEye proved – but the Spaniard was out of challenges and had to concede defeat after an hour and 33 minutes.