Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal took the suspense out of what looked to be exciting quarterfinal matchups in Monte-Carlo. Murray crushed Milos Raonic and Nadal cruised past Stan Wawrinka to set up a semifinal showdown on Saturday.
Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal will be doing battle for the 23rd time in their careers when they collide in the semifinals of the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters on Saturday afternoon.
Nadal is dominating the head-to-head series 16-6, including 6-1 on clay and 2-0 in Monte-Carlo. He beat Murray 6-2, 7-6(4) in the semis of this tournament in 2009 and again in the final four via a 6-4, 2-6, 6-1 decision in 2011. Murray managed to win their most recent clay-court contest 6-3, 6-2 in the 2015 Madrid final, but Nadal had no trouble prevailing 6-4, 6-1 at the World Tour Finals last fall.
The Spaniard has won only two clay-court titles since the 2014 French Open–none at the Masters 1000 level. With Nadal having slumped earlier this season while Novak Djokovic positively rolled through the rest of the tour, it looked as if the world No. 5 would be hard-pressed to pick up another title even on his favorite surface. But Nadal has to be considered the favorite in Monte-Carlo at this point given his own stellar play and Djokovic’s early exit at the hands of Jiri Vesely. The eight-time champion booked his spot in the semis by defeating Aljaz Bedene, Dominic Thiem, and Stan Wawrinka in straight sets.
Murray is in the midst of a much-needed productive week after falling early in Indian Wells (to Federico Delbonis in the third round) and Miami (to Grigor Dimitrov, also in the third round). The second-ranked Scot needed three sets to get past both Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Benoit Paire, even trailing Paire by a set and a double-break in the second before storming back for a 2-6, 7-5, 7-5 victory.
On second life in Monte-Carlo, Murray picked up the pace to hammer Milos Raonic 6-2, 6-0 on Friday. He faced zero break points and solved the Raonic serve an impressive five times to coast in one hour and six minutes.
“Obviously I had a couple tough weeks in Indian Wells and Miami, and I haven’t played loads of tennis since Australia,” the No. 2 seed reflected. “The first couple matches here were tough matches; didn’t play particularly well. I’m just happy I managed to fight through them and now I feel a little bit more relaxed about where my game’s at.”
Murray interview:
Murray’s performance against Raonic was encouraging, but the Canadian struggled through that affair at visibly less than 100 percent. Nadal, of course, is a much different beast than Herbert, Paire, and–on this surface–even than a healthy Raonic. The last time he faced Nadal, Murray’s mind was on clay (for the Davis Cup final against Belgium). This time, Murray will actually be on clay. Neither recipe is a good one.
Pick: Nadal in 2
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oh MY ! WHAT was that!!
Rafa’s backhand has TOOO much air at the moment! Not harming Murray at al
Yep. That’s the difference why Murray doesn’t control the rallies when he plays fedole.
Sad 🙁 Poor game…
The way to beat Murray & Djoker is to play aggressive it’s no use ping ponging with them, it’s their bread and butter.
honestly!! i despair of this rafa!!
Murray keeps getting away with weak second serves. Rafa unable to hit forehand DTL
2-1 Muzz
Wish Paire had beaten him 🙁
Looks like another SF showing….can’t even reach finals now? :/
we should have known….this is still rafa mark 2….good one day poor the next….
Hoping for a Rome 2014 SF type of thing :/
the big problem with team rafa is precisely that they believe that can happen. that was rafa mark 1 not this rafa…
Yeah, not even on one of his favorite court! So sad!
Nadal needs to answer drop-shots WITH DROP-SHOTS
Rafa has retreated back into his shell.
Have a sinking feeling about this match.
as Bedene said, he’s not ripping the forehand
He’s not ripping anything today.
what’s the line in the Who song about not getting fooled again??
going to remember that for the next time he wins well….
Meet the new breed,
Same as the old breed.
yep. toujours la lame chose…
Rafa keeps practicing but his FH and BH still misfire so often! Without that FH, he’s not going to win. I guess the panicky Rafa is still there, not having confidence when facing the top guys.
Murray plays very well no question about that, playing the right way to beat Rafa. Rafa must find the answer quickly. His FH is still his major problem.
it’s not a question of how murray plays but how rafa plays.
rafa mark 2 just isn’t at the races mentally and has no confidence in his forehand
+1
No anxiety in practice (yet).
Picking Rafa again on this site looooooool..always picking with ur heart and not ur head on this site when it comes to nadal……face it he’s not good anymore, just accept it
if he’s not good, what is Stan?
he’s not the one who trailed BENOIT PAIRE 6-2, 3-0 loooooooool
And what was the final score against paire???
it was 2-6, 7-5, 7-5. Shouldn’t be too hard to look up. Should’ve been 6-2, 6-3 or something around there. (Kind of like what a Nadal-Paire score would’ve been).
also keep in mind that (most of the time) you don’t have to be very good to beat Murray on clay
Murray will finish this in 2 let’s face it, Rafa ain’t doing it today buddy
good call!!!!!!
it was SOOOOO important to win that rally!! he did that by playing the best forehand of the match!!
andy’s weak second serves are being returned close to the service box line…
Now PLEASE break here!
I don’t actually think Rafa is playing as bad as people are saying. He’d beat most top 10 today including fed.
He’d beat most top 10 players including fed at this level. He just needs to continue to improve.
Except when trying to consolidate.
WOAAAHHHHHHHHH !!!! THAT was like the king of clay! winning the point out of nowhere!
Can he consolidate now? Just needs to serve a tad better and show more authority on the forehand side.
Nadal consolidating is like Thiem converting
Haha. Thiem wins like five percent of his break points lol.
:@ pooooor depth on literally all groundstrokes!
stats say that andy is only getting in 31% first serve this set. given how horrible his second serve is rafa really should be breaking him and winning…
he did, twice
Murray’s forehand lobs are so annoying. He hits them so well….. gets back in the point
COME ONNNNNNNNNNNNNNN !!!!!! Deuce!
Backhand DTL coming to the rescue!
Excellent serve-forehand punch! Adv