Britain’s Andy Murray managed to beat Kei Nishikori from Japan with straight sets and will face Rafael Nadal in the Madrid Masters final. Murray demonstrated an aggressive display to dispatch the 4th seed 6-3 6-4.
The Japanese had problems with returning serve effectively as world number 3 Murray reached his first Masters final on clay.
“I returned well and put him under a lot of pressure on his serve,” said the Scot, 27. “And my backhand was really good tonight.”
The Scot number one is aiming for back-to-back clay-court titles after winning his first ATP crown on the surface in Munich last week.
“I did a few things well,” he added. “Kei has a fantastic backhand and I won the exchanges on cross-court.
“I got a lot of winners down the line and because I was pushing him back to the baseline, I was able to use my to drop shot. I was getting a lot of kick on second serve, too, so I got a lot of free points with that.”
At 2-3 on serve in the 1st set, Murray soared the pressure and reeled off 4 straight games to move a set ahead. And although Nishikori managed to break him early in the 2nd, the British number 1 hit straight back, and then broke the Japanese again at 5-4 to secure the win.
Earlier, Nadal – the defending champion looked near his best against Tomas Berdych in his Madrid Open semi-final, earning his place in the final with ease. The legend Spaniard delivered a master class of clay-court tennis to prevail 7-6 (7-3) 6-1 against the Czech 6th seed.
However, the two men were evenly matched in the 1st set, before Nadal hit a string of forehand winners in the tie-break.
Berdych was unable to make an impression on the Nadal serve and became frustrated by distractions in the crowd.
Errors crept into his game and Nadal was able to break two times before serving out the 2nd set.
After his struggles with injury in recent years, the Spaniard appears to be hitting peak form before the French Open begins later this month and what is more, he has not dropped a set on route to the Madrid final.
Madrid Open: Murray to face Nadal in the men final
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