Murray reaches singles and doubles final in Tokyo

Written by: Global Chick on 9th October 2011

Murray reaches singles and doubles final in Tokyo

Andy Murray of Great Britain returns to David Ferrer of Spain during their semi-final match of the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo, Japan, 08 October 2011. Murray later won 6-2, 6-3 and advanced to the final which he is to play against Spaniard Rafael Nadal on 09 October. EPA/EVERETT KENNEDY BROWN |

Andy Murray will face defending Champion Rafael Nadal in the final of the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo tomorrow. Murray won comfortably over David Ferrer of Spain 6-2 6-3 in the semi-final.

It only took Murray one hour and 20 minutes to finish off Ferrer. “I played great from start to finish. It was always going to be a tough match, but I played smart and I was hitting the ball very deep from the back of the court, so it was a very good performance,” Murray said.

Murray found form last week when he won the PTT Thailand Open defeating Donald Young in the final. The British number one knows he has to play well in the Tokyo final against Nadal, “I think he’s played some very good tennis the last couple of matches. He’s always tough. He won here last year, so he like the conditions.”

David Ferrer said after his semi-final loss, “You win more matches and you get more confidence. I’m happy with the tournament, not today but I won three matches and this is important for my game.”

World No. 2 Rafael Nadal won in straight sets over Mardy Fish 7-5 6-1 to move into the Japan Open final. Nadal is competing in his 10th ATP Tour final this year. The Spaniard won the Japan Open tournament last year when he defeated Gael Monfils in the final.

“For me it’s fantastic to win against Mardy and be in another final. I think I played well, especially in the second set. I played better than yesterday in the first set but sometimes my return was shorter than I would have liked,” Nadal said. Mardy Fish complimented his opponent, “I thought Rafa played very well today. The first set was pretty high quality and could have gone either way, but he picked up his game and the second set got away from me real quickly.”

Fish is looking to qualify for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London. “The goal is to make London at the end of the year and I’ll take a semi-finals appearance here. I’m taking the momentum I had from the summer an putting points on the board hopefully, week after week,” the American said.

Rafael Nadal leads Andy Murray 13 wins to 4 losses. Their last match was at US Open this year when Nadal won in the semi-final in four sets.

Andy Murray and brother Jamie Murray are in the doubles final after they took out Robin Haase and Viktor Troicki 10-6 in the third set match tiebreak. Team Murray will play Frantisek Cermak and Filip Polasek who defeated Brazilian duo Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares 10-7 in the third set match tiebreak.

SCHEDULE – SUNDAY, 9 OCTOBER, 2011

CENTRE COURT start 2:00 pm

[1] R Nadal (ESP) vs [2] A Murray (GBR)

[4] F Cermak (CZE) / F Polasek (SVK) vs A Murray (GBR) / J Murray (GBR) – After Minimal Rest