Paris: Rafael Nadal was sent packing 7-6 (8), 7-6 (7) by this year’s French Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka, while No. 1 Novak Djokovic stayed on course for his third straight Paris Masters title after beating Tomas Berdych.
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He added: “I will do that through until Thursday, and then start practising over at the O2 probably on Friday”. “Nobody can be ideal, but, you know, if you are going for the perfection, you might reach excellence”. He has now won the Paris event four times.
When Djokovic forged ahead again in the third game of the second set, Murray was in huge trouble, but for once the champion’s level slipped from stratospheric and he was pegged back.
With the set possibly running to Djokovic in quick fashion, the second seeded Scot dug in for the fourth game. His 27-4 record against players of that ranking this season demonstrates just how great the difference is between he and the rest of the field at the moment.
He will head to Queen’s Club to train on the surface with British number two Aljaz Bedene – who will find out if he is eligible for the final at an global Tennis Federation hearing on November 17 – and will not begin preparations for the Tour Finals until Friday.
If he wins the final on Sunday, Murray is set to finish the season as world No 2 – a feat he has never achieved, and with the Davis Cup final on the horizon the 28-year-old could be breaking new ground in his career. “I missed with my backhand a little bit today, left a few too many in the middle of the court and he was able to dictate a lot of the points from there”.
“Congratulations to Novak, he’s had a fantastic season”, said Murray.
And the Djoker would break his opponent;s next serve, and would have a chance to close out the match and does so, when Murray hits wide on the final point. Ravaging return games, Djokovic won 20 of 31 points played on Murray’s second serve, earned break points in seven of the Scot’s nine service games and broke four times.
Another dropped serve by Murray in the seventh game saw the Serb then pocket the set 6-2 in 42 minutes.
Murray has now lost 10 of his last 11 to Djokovic. His only loss during that spell was in August, when Murray beat him in the Rogers Cup final in Montreal.
He overcame an early break in each set, reeled off the last five games of the match, and quickly secured victory on his first match point.
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I don’t think he was expecting a young girl to be the culprit.
