Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga brought the injury-comeback week for Roger Federer to a screeching halt as the eighth seed rallied past the Swiss 3-6, 6-2, 7-5. Spaniard opened the set in the best possible way, breaking Murray for the first time in the match, but that didn’t last for long, as Murray converted his 3rd break point in the next game to level the score. Today I served one of my best matches.
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Monfils broke him again with a brilliant forehand victor that landed right on the line for 4-3, only for Nadal to break him for 4-4.
It was Nadal’s 57th win in the Monte Carlo and seventh over Murray in their eight meetings on the clay.
Nadal twice dragged himself back from a break down in the second before Monfils somehow summoned the energy to break his opponent for a third time to serve out to level the scores. An impressive victory over his compatriot and he’ll take on Nadal for the title. When he plays well, you can’t always decide the outcome.
The Spaniard previously won the tournament, an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event, for eight consecutive years between 2005 and 2012. The red-dirt wasn’t really Murray’s strong surface, but his last year’s performance during European clay-court season that saw him winning the Madrid Masters and reaching the semifinal of the French Open suggests that the Briton has become a force to be reckoned with on clay.
It was a match high on quality but also rancour, with both players being irked by some controversial umpiring decisions.
Another Nadal break at the beginning of the third set was asign of things to come and the Spaniard demonstrated his mastery on clay as the momentum slipped away from the ill-tempered Murray.
Monfils, the 13th seed, overcame Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-1 6-3 in the other, all-French, semi-final.
The Scot won the opening set in 49 minutes with a single break, but could not carry on after being broken at the start of the second set.
Watch the Monte Carlo Masters final on Sunday on Sky Sports 5 HD from 10.30am.
The fifth-seeded Nadal dropped his serve five times against the 13th-seeded Monfils in a topsy-turvy encounter in which they conceded 34 break-point chances between them.
“I lost a lot of matches before the final past year”. Nadal was regularly taking more than the permitted 25 seconds but was warned only once by the umpire, Damien Dumusois, on match point in the final game.
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Those hoping for the match to be extended were swiftly disappointed as Tsonga duly dropped serve for the sixth time in the match, courtesy of a forehand that drifted wide.
