World number two Andy Murray described Rafael Nadal as “the best clay-court player of all time” ahead of Saturday’s semi-final clash in the ATP Madrid Open.
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Four-time tournament champion Nadal is the only player who won the title for two consecutive years, while Murray will seek to emulate the same achievement in Sunday’s final where he will meet the victor of the match between Novak Djokovic and Kei Nishikori, who face each other later on Saturday.
Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia, celebrating her 27th birthday, reached the women’s final by beating American qualifier Louisa Chirico 6-1, 6-1 in less than an hour. He was able to save both and hold at 5-2, but the Spaniard grew into the match and fought back for 5-5 as he expertly manipulated Murray around the court. Murray then moved to within a game of victory as he broke with his first chance of the second set.
With Nadal having converted just one of eleven break points in the match at that stage, it put into perspective how gritty Murray’s display had been to hang in there but also how clinical his play was when presented with opportunities to punish the Spaniard. He had lost four of the last five matches against Nadal.
“There are many things that go into the match, you have to do a lot of things very well”, said Murray.
Halep stormed through the first set in half an hour and needed just one break in the first game of the second to win her first tournament since Indian Wells a year ago.
Nadal looked to be on course for an easy win when he took the first set 6-0 against Portugal’ s Joao Sousa.
“It was an open, competitive match which in the end was decided by a few points”.
Nadal is seeking his 50th career clay-court title, which would break the record he shares with Guillermo Vilas. “I can’t think about last year, it is a different year with completely different sensations”. I also know what I was doing in those matches too, so I made some quite big adjustments that obviously helped.
The momentum appeared to swing Nadal’s way when he responded by taking Murray’s serve, but it was the Scot who took the first set with a winning forehand that broke the home favourite for a second time. “Not saying he played his best tennis today, but he played better than past year”.
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Murray, who, after brushing aside Tomas Berdych in the quarterfinals, talked about the improvements he has tried to make to his second serve in recent weeks, again served well, saving 11 of 13 break points. I have to give my best if I want to have options, and that’s what I am going to do. He botched several drop-shot attempts throughout the match then contributed to his own demise slapping a smash and forehand into the net on the final two points.
