Murray reaches first semi on clay
Sunday, 19 April 2009
Andy Murray reached his first semi-final on clay by winning two matches Friday at the Monte Carlo Masters.
The British number one sealed a rain-affected 7-6 (13-11) 6-4 win over Italy's Fabio Fognini Friday morning to reach the last eight.
The fourth seed then overcame Russia's Nikolay Davydenko 7-6 (7-1) 6-4 late in the evening to set up a semi-final with world number one Rafael Nadal.
"It was a good day. I'm looking forward to getting into bed now," said Murray.
"It's been a long couple of days and I'm very happy to come through it."
Murray, who had never reached a clay quarter-final until beating Fognini, was not at his best against Davydenko but dominated the tie-break to win the opening set.
He struggled with his serve in the second as the eighth seed hit back to lead 4-1.
However, the Scot recovered his composure to win the next five games and converted his third match point to seal victory.
Murray appeared to struggle with a hand injury but confirmed it was nothing serious.
"It's just a couple of blisters. I've got new rackets for the clay-court season and the grips are a bit different," he said.
And he said he was looking forward to meeting Nadal on clay.
"There'll be a lot of expectation on me but it's great experience for me to learn a lot from playing the top guys about how they play on clay," he added.
The 21-year-old had taken the first set against Fognini Thursday before bad weather forced play to be stopped.
He made a slow start when the match resumed on Friday but his patient play eventually sank the world number 108.—BBC
The British number one sealed a rain-affected 7-6 (13-11) 6-4 win over Italy's Fabio Fognini Friday morning to reach the last eight.
The fourth seed then overcame Russia's Nikolay Davydenko 7-6 (7-1) 6-4 late in the evening to set up a semi-final with world number one Rafael Nadal.
"It was a good day. I'm looking forward to getting into bed now," said Murray.
"It's been a long couple of days and I'm very happy to come through it."
Murray, who had never reached a clay quarter-final until beating Fognini, was not at his best against Davydenko but dominated the tie-break to win the opening set.
He struggled with his serve in the second as the eighth seed hit back to lead 4-1.
However, the Scot recovered his composure to win the next five games and converted his third match point to seal victory.
Murray appeared to struggle with a hand injury but confirmed it was nothing serious.
"It's just a couple of blisters. I've got new rackets for the clay-court season and the grips are a bit different," he said.
And he said he was looking forward to meeting Nadal on clay.
"There'll be a lot of expectation on me but it's great experience for me to learn a lot from playing the top guys about how they play on clay," he added.
The 21-year-old had taken the first set against Fognini Thursday before bad weather forced play to be stopped.
He made a slow start when the match resumed on Friday but his patient play eventually sank the world number 108.—BBC