“This week I was able to increase my level when things became tough, like I did before”, Nadal said.
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In total, Nadal dropped serve 13 times this week, and more clinical opponents might have made him pay.
Rafael Nadal could be heading into Roland Garros as one of the few favorites to win the tournament after his victory at the Monte Carlo Masters this season. Meanwhile, Jamie Murray will still be No 1 in doubles when the world rankings are updated today but the 30-year-old Scot is still waiting for his first Masters Series title.
“I am still not 100% ideal, but I am much better”.
While Nadal was fighting through Stan Wawrinka and Andy Murray in the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively, the tension was apparent when the Spaniard was pulling away.
Monfils has lost the only two Masters finals he has played – both in Paris – the last of which was in 2010. “I’ve been managing it since the start of our second match [with physio treatment rather than painkillers]”, he said. “I think they also drank a lot of alcohol”. “It’s been a special week for me, winning again at Monte Carlo”.
But Murray beat Nadal in the Madrid Masters final a year ago, when he won his first two career titles on clay, and Nadal called him “a complete player in all aspects”.
Murray, who has a 6-16 record against Nadal and 1-6 on clay, will play the Spaniard for a place in the final after having routed Milos Raonic 6-2, 6-0.
“I was expecting a hard match, and that is exactly what happened”. “I simply couldn’t find an answer”. His last finals appearance here was in 2013 when he lost to Novak Djokovic.
Yesterdays defeat over the Frenchman Gael Monfils proved to fans, the world of tennis and probably himself, that Rafa Nadal is back to full fitness and is most certainly on-form.
At times it seemed Monfils could cause a big upset, hitting superb winners from incredible angles and with brutal strength. “I need to try to have him play badly, or walk all over him”, said Monfils via Yahoo. “Good serve, movements are unbelievable, super quick”. But Monfils double-faulted seven times.
He’ll face Jo-Wilfried Tsonga or Gael Monfils in the final.
On this occasion Murray and Soares struck the first blow, breaking Mahut to lead 5-3.
Nadal found his serving range in the decider and eventually clinched victory on his fifth match point, with the score 2-6, 6-4, 6-2.
And Murray in the near court does just that in the first set as the second seed dominates on his serve and continually pressure Nadal’s and this big backhand puts him on course to winning the first set 6-2. In the end, it was a brutal reminder of just how far Monfils has to go to match the level of the likes of Nadal.
Nadal, the grinding, grimacing machine, oozed desperation, wrapped in his blanket of mental tics; Monfils – in the 24th final of his career – betrayed his emotional and physical exhaustion without artifice, smiling nervously at each wondrous victor, hands slipping to his knees after every insane miss.
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“In the third, I didn’t get off to the best start”.
