That's the semi finals Andy vs Rafa match over, and as predicted Rafa defeated Murray, although it was hardly the straight sets defeat that we might have expected, quite the opposite, as it was turned into a near 3 hour battle with the first two sets being of the highest quality tennis as you can get, with the result 6-4 2-6 6-1 in Rafa's favour. But unfortunately for Andy, prior to coming out on court there was a delay as it was heard that Andy had sustained an eblow injury possibly from playing earlier in the week, which sadly took its effect as the match soldiered on. Regardless of that Andy came out to play after about a 20 minute delay to big applause from the crowd, followed by Rafa who had an even bigger applause.
For the first set I think Andy struggled to hold his service, and Rafa took an early lead to make it 4-1, but then Andy came fighting back to make it 4-4 all, before Nadal secured the first set 6-4, the first set being 69 minutes in length. The second kicked in and the momentum suddenly swung drastically in Murray's favour as he battled it out with Rafa to break his serve, which he duly did and after that he didn't look back and ended the set 6-2. But unfortunately in the 3rd, the pre-match cortisone injection Andy took for his elbow injury wore off and fatigue set in as Rafa resurged and took the concluding set in 6-1. It was a shame it had to end on a disappointing note as for 2 hours and 30 minutes, it made for absolutely thrilling tennis. But in the end Rafa is the king of clay and no matter what, no one can take him on it yet, Djokovic might pose a threat but I doubt even he can do achieve that yet.
So Rafa beat Ferrer in the final which was to be expected, athough I think it was a tough match which stretched to 2 hours 21 minutes, with Rafa struggling at times but coming through in 6-4 7-5. One thing is for sure, this week we have truly seen the return of Andy Murray, as his confidence levels on clay in particular have soared, and ok that elusive grand slam might still elude him yet, but at least he can take away many positives from this week's tennis. The main positives being he played 4 excellent quality matches, and was only the second man after Novak Djokovic to be able to take a set off Nadal on the Monte Carlo clay in 2 years, which is no mean feat, another big positive was he won over the fickle Monaco crowd as he fought Nadal. So its fine start to Andy's clay season, as long as he can keep it up that's the main thing.
Anyway the expectations of it being the match of the tournament thankfully largely lived up to its expectations even if it did trail away towards the end. Unfortunately due to Andy's elbow injury he has had to forgo his participation in the Barcelona open this week as he's been advised to rest by the doctors, which is more than fair enough, the Barcelona tournament is a small fry one anyway so its best that Andy saves himself for Madrid in May to give himself the time he needs to recuperate. Let's just hope for Andy's sake that this elbow injury doesn't become more serious as it can be one of the more troublesome injuries a player can get.
And that's enough fer noooow.
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