BRING ON NADAL
Rampant Murray storms past Lopez and believes he’s got the measure of semi-final opponent Nadal
BRITAIN’S Andy Murray believes he can finally conquer his nemesis Rafael Nadal when it matters most after he moved into the Wimbledon semi-final following a second successive faultless Centre Court masterclass.
The 24-year-old required a fraction over two hours to dispose of unseeded Spaniard Feliciano Lopez who, like world No13 Richard Gasquet before him, had no answer to his opponent’s impressive serving, relentless groundstrokes and touch at the net.
Nadal holds an 11-4 career advantage over Murray and has won their previous two Wimbledon encounters in straight sets, including last year’s semi-final.
But Murray, who lost to the world No1 in last month’s French Open semi, believes a new approach coupled with his additional experience can help him topple the No1 seed.
“I believe I can win against Nadal. I had chances last year,” Murray said after completing a routine 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 win over Lopez. “I just have to have a better gameplan. Sometimes it comes down to strategy, sometimes it comes down to more experience.
“I’ve obviously played Rafa a lot of times at grand slams and I’ve beaten him before at grand slams. I haven’t done it at Wimbledon. That’s something I’d like to change on Friday. But it’s an incredibly difficult task.”
Nadal revealed he would need injections in his injured left foot ahead of tomorrow’s showpiece occasion in order to numb the pain. Murray also appeared to suffer some discomfort in the third set of his victory over Lopez, following a sharp change of direction.
He said the injury, to the top of his hip, was a “little bit sore” but he is “moving OK”.
Nadal added that he did not feel any discomfort during his 6-3, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 victory over Mardy Fish because the foot had been “put to sleep”.
He added: “My foot is not fine. But we are in the quarter-finals of Wimbledon – it’s an emergency. I have to play. So we decided to [put to] sleep a little bit the zone of the foot and play the rest of the tournament. It’s the last tournament for a month and a half so I have to try my best.”
Though Nadal has enjoyed the upperhand in the majority of their meetings, Murray has not been without his moments either. A US Open semi-final victory in 2008 and an Australian Open quarter-final success last year appears to indicate that the gap is not as wide as many suggest.
Nadal agreed, saying: “Every match is completely different and every year is a different situation. The match will be very difficult for me.
“He is playing at a very high level at this moment. The last few months for Andy were very good. I have to enjoy the moment and play my aggressive game.”