Murray Defeats Nadal for Madrid Open Title
Andy Murray continued his recent success on clay on Sunday afternoon, beating the “King of Clay” Rafael Nadal 6-3, 6-2 in the Mutua Madrid Open final.
Murray’s title in Madrid comes on the heels of his win in Munich last week, which was the first clay-court title of his career. He followed that victory up by dominating in Madrid and beating the greatest ever on clay, Nadal, in straight sets in the tournament’s final.
“I think I wasn’t expecting this a couple of weeks ago, so when things are unexpected, it feels nicer,” said Murray. “I didn’t feel like I put too much pressure on myself the past couple of weeks, which is a good thing. Obviously to win a Masters 100 on clay for me is a step in the right direction. It’s something I had never done before. So that’s good progress there. To win against Rafa on clay in a final is an extremely difficult thing to do, and I’m proud that I’ve managed to do that.”
While his opponent on Sunday is the greatest player ever to play on clay, Murray’s triumph over him was fairly routine. He secured breaks early in each set which allowed him to dictate the pace with his serve.
The Scot saved all three break point chances he allowed and won 73 percent of his service points to really control the match from start to finish.
Despite the loss, Nadal’s performance in Madrid this past week leave him encouraged as we inch closer to the French open.
“I cannot leave Madrid not happy. I have [to] leave happy and just delete what happened today,” said Nadal. “I will just stay with the good things that happened this week, and there are a lot of them, more good than bad. I will try to recover in Rome the feelings. I think I’ve made a step forward and I’m playing better. My game is better.”
Both Murray and Nadal, the third and fourth seeds respectively, will be in Rome this week competing for the title at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.
