We have a finger licking quarter in Rome as a vulnerable Rafael Nadal will take on a resurging Andy Murray.
Nadal
The King of Clay is struggling on his favorite surface for the past few months. It seems that Rafa has lost lots of confidence and he is there up for grab. In Rome Rafa has won the first 2 matches in 3 sets (the first one in more than 3 hours) and we wonder if he has enough fuel in the tank.
Rafa’s confidence was hurt also in the latest match against Youzhny (not the finest player on clay) as the Spaniard was outplayed in the opening set to be 1 set and 0-2 down. Then Rafa found his range to win 12 of the following 13 games. But the doubts are still there.
The world no.1 commented “I played with passion and motivation even if the feeling was not perfect. That’s always very good news, because when you have a lot of opportunities during the match, you keep fighting, trying to find solutions. That always means that you really want to win.”
Murray
Andy is also not coming from a brilliant period. The Scott has been struggling to recover from his operation to the back, he was badly dumped by his star celebrity coach Ivan Lendl and he is struggling to find convincing results. Murray is now ranked world no.8, but his tennis is getting a bit better.
Head to head
Head to head is 13-5 for Nadal and the Spaniard has a 4-0 record on clay against Andy losing just 1 set on the way. Time for another upset?
