There’ll surely be break points aplenty here and I doubt there’ll be a tie break (they’ve played only one in 17 sets against each other) so Murray’s much better service hold mark against Nishikori should see him take a one break opener.
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That was until the fifth game when the unforced errors crept back into the world No 7’s game and he was broken after a hopelessly miscued drop shot.
Murray has won 10 of 12 ATP sets against the Japanese No.1, with his only loss coming at the World Tour Finals in 2014.
That proved to be all the advantage he needed, although Nishikori managed a late rally by saving two break points.
Monfils responded in kind immediately, though, and broke again in the final game of the set to take it 6-4 and force a decider.
Andy Murray became the first man to qualify for the final of the 2016 Summer Olympics men’s tennis tournament on Saturday, beating Kei Nishikori in two sets, 6-1, 6-4.
After almost losing a tight quarterfinal match against 12th-seeded American Steve Johnson, reigning gold medalist Andy Murray returned to form in his semifinal against 4th-seeded Kei Nishikori.
The tension of the first set returned with neither player able to find a break of serve, sending the match into a deciding tie-breaker.
The reigning Wimbledon champion cruised past Nishikori in the Rio sunshine two sets to love and barely had to break sweat.
After a week’s worth of action, it all boiled down to the two semi-finals that determined, who would be the two players to stand on the podium after Sunday’s final even as the losing semi-finalists faced one more match-up before one of them could make his way onto the podium.
Third seed Rafael Nadal is also through to the last four after overcoming crowd favourite, Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci in three sets.
The world number two and reigning Wimbledon champion will face either 2008 Olympic victor Rafael Nadal or Juan Martin del Potro in Sunday’s gold medal match.
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Murray, who is defending his Olympic singles title from London 2012, fought his way past the Japanese star in straight sets to reach his second successive final.
