BERCY DAY 4 – NADAL LOSES, DJOKOVIC & MURRAY WIN FROM RICHARD EVANS, PARIS

It was way past the midnight hour by the time Rafael Nadal failed to beat off the challenge of Stan Wawrinka, the man who had replaced him as French Open champion on the other side of Paris in June.

Nadal has suffered a bit since then; losing form and confidence before bounding back as a serious contender, even indoors, since the US Open. Frailties that Rafa in his pomp would not have countenanced were still visible as he tried to close out the first set tie-break against the determined and talented Swiss – two makeable forehands netted, the first on set point up and the second on set point down.

That breaker went to 10-8 and, with the majority of the 15,000 crown inside the renovated AccorHotels Arena ignoring the lateness of the hour to cheer both men, the second also went the distance with Nadal reaching set point three times. But Wawrinka always had an answer and a clean hit down the line off the forehand sealed Nadal’s fate 7-6, 7-6 with the second breaker going to 9-7.

Nadal is playing much better than he was at the beginning of the year, and gave evidence of it when he thrashed Wawrinka 6-2, 6-1 in Shanghai just a couple of weeks ago but there were moments in this match that might come back to haunt him. Normally so technically sound on routine shots, the Spaniard mangled a straight forward smash so badly in the second breaker that it landed at his feet in the bottom of the net.

Wawrinka can be proud of himself. He needed nerves of steel and no little skill to survive those tie breaks against an opponent of this quality and experience but he has grown into a true champion over the past two years and this was a highly impressive performance.

Andy Murray, under different circumstances, also showed why he had been near the top of the game for so long – never finishing lower than sixth in the world for the past eight years – when he started the day’s program by beating the last French survivor, Richard Gasquet 7-6, 3-6, 6-3.

Murray began where he had left off against David Goffin the previous day and seemed set for a routine win over a man he had beaten six times out of nine. But Gasquet had the crowd behind him and fought back from 0-3 to push the Scot into the breaker. Murray won it after a tough struggle and then allowed Gasquet to take charge of the match.

“I feel I have been striking the ball well this week,” said Murray. “But I let my level drop in the second set and you really want to make sure your level stays high after winning a tough first set.”

 

But Murray’s talent shone through in the third, never more so when he threaded a backhand pass down the line at full stretch on a break point to Gasquet. “I put a little bit of swerve on the ball to bring it back into court,” Murray in his understated way, looking as if such a thing is easy to do when you have been pounding across the baseline and have a split second to make a decision and execute it.

Gasquet sounded a little bit in awe of the former US Open and Wimbledon champion afterwards. “Andy is always putting the ball in the court, playing very fast from the baseline, serving well. He’s very clever on court. Fighting so much. It’s Andy Murray.”

It was, indeed, and now the Scot, who said his back was a little stiff afterwards, will need to grind out another one if he is get past the relentless David Ferrer in the semi-final. Later, Ferrer closed out a victory over a suffering John Isner 6-3, 6-7, 6-2 after the American doubled up on the court with stomach pains.

“It wasn’t an injury, just a really bad stomach,” said a disappointed Isner who had been hoping to build on his great victory over Roger Federer in the previous round.

Tomas Berdych gave Novak Djokovic a good work out before going down 7-6, 7-6 to the world No 1. According to the ATP, this was the first time Djokovic had won a match without breaking his opponent’s serve.

“Really?” said Novak, reacting to the news. “I was not aware of that. But I definitely didn’t want to go into a third set. Credit to Berdych for playing at a high level, pushing me back in the court with his depth, especially from the forehand side. I thought he did very well.”

But not well enough to prevent the majestic Serb from gaining his 20th victory over his Czech rival in 22 meetings.

 

Topics: Andy Murray, Atp World Tour, Bercy tennis, Bnp Paribas Masters, Novak Djokovic, Rafa Nadal, Richard Evans, Richard Gasquet, Sports, Stan Wawrinka, Tennis News, Tomas Berdych

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