Rafael Nadal win his 3rd consecutive battle in Rome “gladiator style”.
The beginning of the match wasn’t that good for Rafa that was 5-0 down against Murray. Many eyebrows were raised at seeing the King of Clay being almost bagelled in the opening set. But Rafa is Rafa and even after losing the opener 6-1 he was absolutely ready for the battle.
In the second set Rafa won the only and decisive break in the 2nd game to then grab the set at 6-3. The fight became even harder in the decider. Rafa broke Andy in the opening game to be broken back immediately. Then it was the Scott to break the world no.1 (4-2) to be broken again (4-3). Finally Murray imploded in his last service game to lose it at 0 (5-6). At that point Rafa went to serve for the match to hold serve at 15. The final result was 1-6 6-3 7-5 and the match ended after 2 hours and 50 minutes. Match Stats.
Next vs. Dimitrov
Rafa will play Grigor Dimitrov in the semifinal. Head to head is 4-0 for Rafa that has always conceded at least a set to the Bulgarian.
