wimbledon Scot seals last-four date with Nadal as Swiss capitulates Pages 2-5
The world No.4’s straight sets defeat of Feliciano Lopez of Spain has set up tomorrow’s clash with the defending champion.
On a day when Roger Federer crashed out of the tournament at the hands of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Novak Djokovic survived a scare to beat Bernard Tomic, Murray thrashed Lopez 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 to move into his third consecutive semi-final at Wimbledon.
He is preparing to go further. “I believe I can win against him,” said Murray of coming up against Nadal who defeated him in the semi-final last year. “I had chances last year,” said the Scot who has defeated the Spaniard in grand slams in Australia and the US.
“I just have to have a better game plan. Sometimes it comes down to strategy,” he said. “I have to go out there and play well, serve well and believe I have a chance.”
Murray, who has lost only two sets en route to the last four, added: “I feel good. I have played well so far and I feel comfortable. I don’t expect to be comfortable in the next match. I know I’ll have to come through moments when I’m struggling and have to come from behind sometimes. You have to be prepared for that.”
The Scot also played down a groin strain he suffered in the third set, believing it will not cause him a problem.
Nadal, who defeated Mardy Fish of the USA in four sets, will play against Murray with his injured foot numbed by painkillers. The Spaniard, who said he regularly defeated the Scot in their games on the PlayStation games console, expects a tougher challenge on the court.
“The match will be very difficult for me. He’s playing at a very, very high level. We’ll see what’s going on. For me, the last few months Andy has been very, very good,” said the reigning champion. “We will see what’s going on in that semi-finals. I always enjoy playing these kind of matches,” he said.
Nadal, who said Murray was enjoying a very good season, was surprised to hear of the defeat of Federer, who lost for the first time in a grand slam after taking a two-set lead.
Federer tried desperately to be upbeat but is enduring a long drought for a player who has won 16 majors. His last major victory was the Australian Open of 2010 and his defeat to Tsonga has raised questions about the future of the Swiss player.
“Except the score, many, many things went right,” said Federer, trying to put the bravest of faces on a devastating loss. “I thought I played a good match. I’m actually pretty pleased with my performance today. It’s kind of hard going out of the tournament that way, but unfortunately it does happen sometimes.”
Asked if he had dealt a death blow to the Federer dynasty at majors, Tsonga said: “I do not know. Only the future will tell us.”
The immediate future pits the Frenchman against Djokovic, who shrugged off a stiff challenge by Tomic to reach his fifth consecutive grand slam semi-final.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article