Murray overcomes worn-out Nadal in Rotterdam

Andy on Rafa: “He almost beat me on one leg”
Plus: Scot regrets writing book

FROM THE ABN AMRO MASTERS 500 IN ROTTERDAM – Rafael Nadal said he arrived in Rotterdam at the start of the week feeling physically ‘so-so’. Three two-plus hour marathons on consecutive nights in Holland didn’t help the recovery process for the Australian Open champion, who paid the price for his amount of court time in recent weeks in the final against Andy Murray. The 21-year-old Scot overwhelmed his completely worn out opponent in the third set: 6-3, 4-6, 6-0. “It shows what a great player he is, that he almost beat me on one leg,” said Murray in his acceptance speech.

“I had some problems, but I prefer don’t speak about that,” Nadal said during his press conference. “I tried, I can’t hit the ball in the third and he beat me and [I] congratulate him for that.” Word from the ATP is that Nadal was bothered by a right leg injury, just below his knees. Apparently it’s a ‘completely new’ injury, which had nothing to do with the knee trouble that caused Nadal to miss the end of last season, including the Davis Cup-final and Masters Cup.

Nadal appeared to overstretch on a smash early on in the second set, after which he called for the trainer, but he managed to hang tough with Murray by playing all-out attacking tennis and catching the 21-year-old Scot by surprise. The Mallorcan was having trouble pushing off his legs on his serve, which is part of the reason why both players exchanged a whopping seven consecutive service breaks in the set. Nadal’s movement was deteriorating however, and even after he took the second set, there was no jubilant cheer of ‘vamos’ from Rafa, who was emotionally flat throughout the match. Nadal walked towards his bench with his head down, deep down knowing that there was no way he was going to win this match.

“It was difficult to play,” Murray said. “His first serve slowed down with 30 km/h [after the medical timeout], so I could get every return back and get the first good hit. Unfortunately I didn’t serve well in the second set, so he was standing inside the baseline and hitting second serve returns so hard. I was feeling pretty rushed.”

“Obviously he wasn’t running that hard, but hitting the ball much harder than he was in the first set, and I didn’t know what to do. Because naturally when someone’s hurt, or not running, you just want to get the ball back and make him play a lot of balls. But he didn’t have to do a lot of moving because he was hitting so hard. I really struggled with my serve and got a little nervous, but I started to serve a bit better in the third set.”

Murray was surprised Nadal didn’t throw in the towel after he fell behind in the third set and clearly wasn’t able to seriously challenge his opponent.

“If he stopped I wouldn’t have thought any less of him,” said the world number four. “There’s a difference of stopping when you’re not feeling great or you have a slight problem, or [when] you can’t move like he had at the end of the match. I was thinking to myself ‘he should stop the match it’s better for him, for his knee’. I have a lot of respect for him. I don’t want to see him making his knee worse. I mean, it wasn’t particularly entertaining towards the end.”

Nadal admitted ‘it was an option’ to retire, but he felt it wasn’t the right way to end a tournament. “In final against Murray it’s not nice for him, for me, and the tournament,” he said.

The injury from Nadal was a blow to the match, that had started off on a high level in the first set, with both players trying to get on top of the other by going for their shots. Nadal had shown a willingness to play dominating, aggressive tennis throughout the event and he kept it up against Murray. But the courts in Rotterdam were some of the fastest on tour according to the players, and those conditions will always suit Murray’s game better than Nadal’s. The Scot has a greater talent to slice and dice on low skidding balls than the heavy-swinging Spaniard and his flat shots produced some mishits from Nadal that eventually cost the crowd-favorite the opening set.

Serving at 1-all in the second set, Nadal called for the trainer and it all went downhill from there.

Murray himself was complaining about a sour ankle after his semifinal win on Saturday, which is why he pulled out of Marseille next week, where he won the title last year. “My ankle is still sour, so I’m taking next week off. Make sure I see the physio and get everything checked out,” he said. Murray is scheduled to play in Dubai the following week, just as Nadal. Both players are hopeful they’ll recover in time to head to the Middle East. Nadal insisted his injury is ‘not too serious’.

“I have to think positive, no?”, Nadal said. “I start the season like a dream, winning Australia, playing the final here, is a very good result for me, so I’m very happy for that.”

Murray has now won 13 out of 14 official matches this year. By winning in Rotterdam he claimed his tenth career title, and second of the season. He also won the tournament in Doha plus the exhibition event in Abu Dhabi, where he beat Nadal, Roger Federer and James Blake. All that’s missing for him now is a Grand Slam-title…

MURRAY REGRETS WRITING AUTOBIOGRAPHY

There was a long press conference with Murray earlier in the week, during which he was questioned on all sorts of subjects. Among other things, he complained about how he detested the new drug testing rules, which require players to fill in a whereabouts form for where there’ll be during one hour every day. “It’s just something I feel quite strongly about and I hope they change it,” he said.

More interesting however was the confession Murray made about his biography ‘Hitting Back’, which was released last year. “I wish I hadn’t done it,” he said. “Sometimes when you’re young, you make some bad decisions, and that wasn’t one of my better ones. I was too young. You know, it was sort of more a financial decision, and that’s something I think as you get older, you learn that money is not the most important thing. I like to make decisions based on what’s best for my tennis, best for my career, best for me and the people that are around me. I’m not planning on doing another one while I’m playing.”

On becoming number one, he said: “Nadal could go on to become the best of all time. We don’t know, but he’s for sure going to be one of the best. Federer is very close to becoming the best of all time, so there’s two unbelievable players there right now. If I want to try to overtake them, I’ll need to win two Slams in a year. Right now I’m just focusing on trying to win my first one and then I’ll see.”

On rating’s Nadal chances to becoming the best ever: “At the same age I think Federer had two and Nadal has got six. And he’s won on every surface now. I can’t see many people beating him on clay, so I’m guessing he’ll have at least two or three more French Opens, and then it depends on how he does on the other tournaments, but he’s gonna be very close for sure.”

Murray was then asked if he liked to watch Pop Idol, after which the reporter wanted to know how talented the Scot himself is as a singer. “Singing is not great,” he said. “My speaking voice isn’t particularly good either,” admitted the man, who quite possibly may never have changed the tone in his voice since the day he come on tour. “But I have the Sing Star Pro, it’s a karaoke game for the PlayStation.”

Don’t stop reading just yet, here’s the best one: Asked whether Murray sees himself on the same level as David Beckham, he paused for a few seconds, before cracking up the interview room by saying: “Definitely not looks-wise.”