Djokovic, Murray in Madrid final
Print Edition
WORLD No. 1 Novak Djokovic set up a Madrid Masters final showdown against defending champion Andy Murray by seeing off Japan’s Kei Nishikori 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) on Saturday.
Murray, the second seed, earlier registered just his second ever win over Rafael Nadal on clay to make the final with a 7-5, 6-4 victory.
Djokovic has yet to drop a set in the Spanish capital this week but he was nearly caught cold by the windy conditions as he had to battle back from 0-40 down in the first game with some fine serving.
The Serb slowly began to find his rhythm and broke through in the eighth game as Nishikori pulled a forehand wide before serving out for the set.
Djokovic looked set to seal victory comfortably as he led 40-0 at 5-4 in the second set, but the Japanese star dug deep, saving the three match points and then a fourth as he broke back before forcing the tiebreak. However, the top seed bounced back to take the breaker 7-4 and set up his first meeting with Murray in a Masters series final on clay.
“I had an easy forehand to finish off the match at 40-0 then a double fault and couple of good points from Kei and the break was there,” said Djokovic.
Djokovic will look to extend his 22-9 head-to-head record against Murray, exactly 10 years on from their very first encounter in the Madrid third round.
Murray’s only previous win over Nadal on clay also came in Madrid in last year’s final.
In the women’s edition, Romania’s Simona Halep sealed her first title in 14 months with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Dominika Cibulkova. The victory will move Halep up from seventh to fifth in the world.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
