Murray downs rusty Nadal

Rafael Nadal deemed his unofficial return to competition in Abu Dhabi as a "positive start" after he fell to Andy Murray in a high-quality exhibition match on Friday.

In a battle of two former world number ones, the Scot won 6-3, 7-5 in the semi-final of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship.

Nadal, who had played just two matches in six months after a foot injury that ruled him out of Wimbledon and the US Open, was back in action for the first time since August.

"I think I did a lot of things well and other things, of course after a long period of time, I need to recover again, some things that when you're under competition come automatically," Nadal said after facing Murray for the first time since 2016.

The 20-time Grand Slam champion says he only started playing practice sets two days ago. "In Mallorca for the last five months, I played zero of these matches. I just did exercises and something more under control to try and make the normal evolution for the foot," explained Nadal.

Murray was pleased with his two wins in the Abu Dhabi exhibition so far, having beaten fellow Briton Daniel Evans on Thursday before disposing of Nadal.