Defending champion Andy Murray registered just his second ever win over Rafael Nadal on clay to reach the Madrid Masters final 7-5, 6-4 on Saturday.
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I think it’s big.
Djokovic responded by raising his level once again, breaking for a 5-2 lead.
Murray was unable to successfully defend his title in Madrid, losing the decider 6-2 3-6 6-3.
“But we both thrived to be at the top, and we’ve known each other since we were 12”.
Murray sealed a devastating 7-5 6-4 victory to send him through to Sunday’s final where he will play world number one, Novak Djokovic.
Murray’s defeat will allow Roger Federer to move above him into the world number two spot.
“Last year he won here in Madrid so he knows how to play this surface”.
On Sunday, Djokovic will look to extend his 22-9 head-to-head record against Murray, exactly 10 years on from their very first encounter in the Madrid third round.
“The beginning of the second set in Monte Carlo, he came out and really raised his intensity, and I didn’t”, said Murray. So I was very pleased with that.
Djokovic, 28, has now won 33 of the past 35 sets against top 10 opponents – a stretch of 15 matches.
However, Nadal battled back from match point down as Murray fired a forehand long to finally break the Scot’s serve on his ninth break point of the set.
“And we have very similar styles of the game”.
Djokovic has won five of the last six Masters titles, including three this year.
“Sorry I couldn’t get the win here today”, he said.
“The match really could have gone either way, but we exchanged some breaks of serves early in the third”, Djokovic said. “I used the forehand pretty good, I was able to push him back behind the baseline”.
The Serb was delighted to get back to winning ways after a shock loss at the Monte-Carlo Masters to Jiri Vesely.
Djokovic admitted that he just scraped to the win in a tight match where he fired 25 winners and the same number of unforced errors while breaking four times. “If you were in the semi-final two times in Roland Garros and you lost in five sets in semi-finals past year, it’s obvious that you can win the title”.
The reigning Madrid Open champion fired off eight aces against Nadal, as well as saving 11 out of 13 break points. “One of the keys of the match was getting as many returns back in play as possible”, Djokovic said. “Just to understand different grips, different positions standing on the court, the ideal spot to make contact with the serve”.
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“I think I was good on a mental level, fighting and looking for solutions but it wasn’t enough”. “I believe I can play well on clay now”. Up until the last couple of years it was extremely close. “I’ve only played maybe three or four indoor clay matches in my life”.
