US Edition 
Rafael Nadal pulls out the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London to for appendix surgery
Rafael Nadal's decision to end his season should improve Andy Murray's hopes of qualifying for the season-ending tournament at the O2
The Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London will have to do without Rafael Nadal for the second time in three years, after the world No2 announced that his season is over. Nadal will undergo surgery to remove his infected appendix on Nov 3.
The loss of such a marquee player will clearly be a huge blow for the event, but there could also be some ancillary benefit if Andy Murray - whose tenure of the eighth qualifying position is at stake on Saturday against David Ferrer - should finish in ninth place in the race to London.
The news was confirmed soon after Nadal had suffered a shock defeat to one of the ATP tour's rising stars, 17-year-old Croatian Borna Coric, in the quarter-finals of the Swiss Indoors in Basel. This was the second time Nadal had lost to a 17-year old in 2014, after he also went down to Nick Kyrgios at Wimbledon.
Coric - who recently split from his British coach Ryan Jones - must be commended for playing a smart and aggressive match, and the fact that has already beaten world No13 Ernests Gulbis this week shows what a superb prospect he is.
Yet this was not the normal Nadal on the far side of the net. In the first set of his 6-2, 7-6 defeat, the French Open champion could barely locate the ball with his strings, striking just one winner and no fewer than 17 unforced errors.
"I'm not going to play Paris and London, I'm not enough competitive," said Nadal, who also suggested that he had been forced to delay his appendix surgery until finishing a course of antibiotics. "I'm going to have the surgery the 3rd of November. I will have treatment on my back next week, that needs a few days."
In Valencia, meanwhile, Murray scored a 6-7, 6-4, 6-4 win over big-serving South African Kevin Anderson, though the 2hr 41min he spent on court may not help him against Ferrer.