Rafael Nadal will face defending champion Andy Murray in the Madrid Masters semi-finals after extending his flawless start to the European clay-court season to 13 matches with a 6-0, 4-6, 6-3 win over Joao Sousa on Friday (May 6).
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Murray hit his best form of the competition at the right time in a dominant display which saw him drop just one point on his serve in the second set and commented afterwards that he had been working to improve his second serve.
Andy Murray, from Britain, plays a backhand to Rafael Nadal, from Spain, during their semifinal Madrid Open tennis tournament match in Madrid, Spain, Saturday, May 7, 2016.
Nadal beat Murray on route to winning in Monte Carlo last month, but the Scot believes the forecast of more rain on Saturday could play a huge part in their latest duel.
Murray needs to successfully defend his title on Sunday to avoid being surpassed by Roger Federer for the No. 2 ranking, a position he has held since November.
The victor will face either Novak Djokovic or Kei Nishikori, who also won on Friday. There are things in my game that are much better just now than at this stage a year ago.
Murray came up with big serves when he needed them the most to keep Nadal from mounting a comeback.
When down three break points in the first game of the opening set, a repeat looked a distinct possibility.
“You have to learn from every match that you play against the best players”.
“You prepare to play against the best clay court player of all time and get yourself ready for that challenge mentally”, Murray told BBC Sport.
Nadal had nine break points in the second set alone, converting only one.
Coming off a final loss to Nadal in Barcelona, Nishikori overcame 18 aces by Kyrgios, getting his lone break to go up 3-1 in the decisive set. “Very pleased to have beaten him this year”. All platitudes such as “but this is Nadal on home turf” are no longer relevant ads Murray’s clay court heroics from previous year proved that he can be beaten.
“I didn’t return that well at the beginning”, Murray said.
“I felt like I made a lot of returns in play, I didn’t make too many mistakes on the returns so I was able to make him work hard in his service games”. The slower conditions should suit the Serbian better who has the head-to-head on his side as he leads Nishikori 7-2, with a six match current winning streak.
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The Scot served for the match at 5-3 in the second set only to get broken, but promptly broke Nadal in the very next game to wrap up a victory that took well over two hours despite coming in straight sets.
