AO Round 4 : Murray v Nadal

mkkreuk · Admin:Moderator + ATP qualifying

RE: AO Round 4 : Murray v Nadal

Count Zero · Tennis legend

even if anyd cant find a way past rafa this is surely a top class performace from him, much to take heart from here, got to be knocking on the top 10 soon, maybe even top 5.

mkkreuk · Admin:Moderator + ATP qualifying

Nadal serving at 2-0

15-0 Great passing shot
15-15 nadal shanks a foreahnd.
15-30. Huge forehand winner dtl - 60th winner
15-40. Nadal is drawn into an error.
30-40. Ball looks to be going wide but murray keeps it in and a letcord presents nadal with an easy volely which he drives down murrays throat
DEUCE. Great drop shot.
Adv murray. A great backhand winner rifled down the line.
DEUCE! FFS. Murray shanks the forehand dtl, just wide.
ADv nadal. too much power and the forehand goes long.

GAME. backhand goes long.

mkkreuk · Admin:Moderator + ATP qualifying

Murray serving at 0-3 in the 5th.

0-15. Double fault.
15-15. Unreturnable set.
30-15. 2 consecutive great reflex volleys.
30-30. Slice return catches the net.
30-40. Unforced error from Murray.
DEUCE. magnificent cross court backhand winner.
Adv nadal. Riddiculously good return of serve winner. Murray challenges...incorrectly.
and he breaks. feck it

Count Zero · Tennis legend

oh man, this set surely doesnt deserve to be a bagal!!

mkkreuk · Admin:Moderator + ATP qualifying

Nadal serving at 4-0 in the fifth.

0-15. Great point with stop volleys, drop shots everything which murray wins with a drop shot.
15-15. Ace
30-15. Error.
40-15. Unreturnable serve.
GAME. same again.

RobC · All-time great

This is unfair! The Spanish have an unfair advantage at staying up till the middle of the night: Go to Barcelona, and you won't find a bar that opens before about 11pm, or a nightclub that starts before about 2am.

Compared to Scotland, when the only time you're up that late is if your absolutely legless.......

mkkreuk · Admin:Moderator + ATP qualifying

Murray serving to stave off bagel.

15-0. error from nadal.
15-15. Double fault.
30-15. nadal backhand just edges wide.
40-15.
40-30. Nadal catches murray on the wrongfoot adn hits the ball behind him
GAME murray, nadal nets.

mkkreuk · Admin:Moderator + ATP qualifying

Nadal serving for the match.

15-0
30-0 wild forehand. A very dejected shot.
40-0. Nadal nets.
40-15 Nadal is forced into an error
GAME! Winner DTL

NAdal wins 6-7 6-4 4-6 6-3 6-1

Great effort but he should have and could have won

Niall · Pro player

Sadly the story of this match is the break point conversion rate. Andy has had more chances but he has converted just 18% whereas Nadal is at 40%.

Even sader is that Andy broke Nadal in the third game of the final set but before the ball could land out Andy stuck his racket on it and presented Nadal with an easy opportunity to hold.

RobC · All-time great

Well that's 3 of the top 5 he's beaten. Nadal & Blake will have to wait for another time.

Grr.

johnnylad · Tennis legend

great effort from Murray!

showed he's top 5 there for me!

But RAFA is top 2 isn't he!

Just under 4 hrs proves he's fit now! That's another monkey off his back. Just needs consistency on serve now!

Not too disheartened. He'll thrive in USA!

stagger · Club Coach

for once i am getting to see some tennis (the aussie open is my favourite one simply because it's asian and the only one they show on the TV here) and this is the first time i've had the chance to sit down and watch the boy play in the latter stages of a tournament (nevermind a goddam slam). from a partisan point of view, that was the best match i watched since henman beat kafelnikov at wimbledon straight after winning roland garros in 1994 or whenever it was. ha! for chrissakes, i remember the time, back in the bad old days, when the best we got was old chris bailey taking ivanesivic to 5 in that strange summer. i cant begin to tell you what a pleasure it was tonight to get home late from work with some waidai, and find i only missed a set and a half. i cracked open some beer, smoked a fat one and watched the rest of the match.

i am usually very reticent about british interests, but this was the match for me that has cemented murray's stature. not the us open title, or san jose or the federer match, but this one because the slam is always the measure of the man. forget the 'gallant loser' british crap, he owned nadal for much of the third and fourth set and had it not been for a vital point, in the fifth game i think it was, he could have wrapped it up in 4. who knows what happened in the fifth, but i think maybe the only difference between nadal and murray tonight was experience and, if you are andy murray, experience is a very cheap commodity. the result was dissapointing of course, but in the bigger picture it was portentous.

barring injury, he's the future my friends. hail the post-federer era

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Quite right Stagger!

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

Wow.

I didn't expect him to win - and frankly I didn't expect him to come so close to winning either.

Andy can take some Positives with a capital P from that match. I thought he played absolutely brillliantly at the start; at one set and 4-1 up, he appeared to suffer from a stitch or something, he was holding his side, and dropped several games in a row to lose the second set. If that hadn't happened I am pretty sure he would have won in 3.

The longer the match went on the more likely it was that Nadal would take it.

I am just so proud of Andy - and so hopeful of the future. A year ago I said, "give him another couple of years"; in just one year he has come so close to beating the number 2, who was not injured or fatigued (which the Murray-haters on other boards keep claiming was the cause of his beating other top players).

Here's to the future!