World No. 2 and defending Champion Rafael Nadal moved into the US Open final after a four set win over Brit Andy Murray 6-4 6-2 3-6 6-2 today.
Monday’s final will be a repeat of the 2010 US Open final. Nadal defeated Djokovic in last year’s final in four sets. The world number one and number two have faced each other in five finals in 2011. The two have met in the ATP World Tour Masters finals of Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid, Rome, and in the final of Wimbledon. Interesting fact is Nadal is yet to beat the Serb. The last time the Spaniard won against the Serb was in the Barclays ATP World Tour finals in London in 2010.
Rafael Nadal is looking to win his 11th Grand Slam title on Monday. In today’s win over Murray you could see Nadal being more aggressive and he admitted it was his best match so far at this year’s Open. The World No. 2 was too good for the World No. 4 in the first two sets. Nadal lost a bit of intensity in the third set and Murray got his game together a little bit and captured the fourth set 6-3.
In the fourth set the ball was back in Nadal’s court. The Spaniard broke Murray’s serve early to take a 3-1 advantage. Nadal broke again to love to close out the set and the match. This is the first match at this year’s US Open Nadal has lost a set. All his previous encounters have been three sets except for his second round when his opponent Nicolas Mahut was forced to pull out.
Nadal’s Grand Slam results this year have been great. He won Roland Garros and was the runner up at Wimbledon. His worst result came at the Australian Open when he lost to fellow countryman David Ferrer in the quarterfinals. The Roland Garros Champion still has a 16-12 win/loss record against Djokovic.
Once again the World No. 4 Andy Murray will return home to the UK without a Grand Slam title. Murray’s Grand Slam results this year are runner up at Australian Open, semi-finalist at Roland Garros, semi-finalist at Wimbledon and semi-finalist at the US Open.
The men’s final at US Open 2011 will be played on Monday September 12 at 4 pm New York time.