Pure delight: Rafael Nadal celebrates his semi-final win on Centre CourtFred Perry’s statue at Wimbledon will continue its lonely vigil for another year, and you wonder if the feats of the last British men’s champion in 1936 can ever be emulated while two players stalk the courts of world tennis.
If Roger doesn’t get you then Rafa will. Having been denied in January’s Australian Open by one of the sport’s towering duopoly, Britain’s great hope was stopped in the semi-finals here by the other playing at the peak of his powers.
This was a Galactico performance from Rafael Nadal, and Andy Murray could not supply the extraordinary effort needed to trump it, going down 6-4, 7-6, 6-4 in two hours and 22 minutes.
And then there were 10 — consecutive losing British semi-finalists at Wimbledon, that is.
The 23-year-old Scot was full of admirable intentions but flinched at the game’s most crucial intersections.
Hard though it is to combat Nadal, Murray tended to play the ball into too narrow a corridor, and the Spaniard’s forehand from the middle of the court was awesome, rearing up off the parched turf like a beast.
This is why it is Nadal going through to a final against Czech Tomas Berdych on Sunday and, astonishingly, likely to make it three straight years when either he or Federer has won in Paris and London back to back.
Murray will look back and see that he neglected little on his checklist on Friday. His first serve was above 60 per cent for most the match and he was ahead on points until the last three games.
Where's it going wrong? Andy Murray endured a miserable afternoon on Centre CourtUnlike in the corresponding match last year against Andy Roddick, he did not sit back and let it wash over him. Murray tried to mix things up. Ultimately, nothing he did could subdue the remarkable Mallorcan, who gallivanted around Centre Court like he had just taken ownership from Federer.
Nadal exacted a huge price for a brief lapse from Murray in the first set, slammed the door on brief opportunities in the second and created his own luck in the tiebreak. By the end Murray, knowing it was not meant to be, was at a loss how to respond.
‘A few weeks ago, nobody would have given me much hope of getting to the semis, but right now I’m very disappointed,’ he said. ‘I wanted to win it for myself, for the guys I work with, for the UK.
'There’s more pressure here but that’s not a valid excuse. I don’t think I returned particularly well but the rest of my game was good.’
There have been times this year, since Australia, when Murray has looked mediocre, and his matches here have provided reassurance he belongs in the top bracket.
But he is still short of Nadal on the biggest stage and, we must presume for now, Federer, despite the Swiss’s quarter-final exit here.
Too good: Rafael Nadal on his way to a straight sets winHe is yet to acquire their champion knack of finding something extra on the very big points that present themselves due to this game’s devilish scoring system. Therefore, he is still left searching for the necessary following wind.
You thought it might be billowing behind him when France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga left that volley in the second set tiebreak in the previous round, but changed your mind when Nadal’s backhand cruelly flicked the net cord at 6-6 in the breaker this time.
If the prize of facing 12th seed Berdych is not the same as winning the lottery — he has shown he is too dangerous a player for that to be the case — then it added a significant dimension to the stakes for both.
The initial eight games were of premium quality before, from nowhere, Murray became the first to crack.
Second best: Andy Murray plays a shot during his straight sets defeatAt 4-4 he put in his first double fault. That was followed by pushing a forehand into the death zone around the service ‘T’, and Nadal duly smacked away a winner.
The British No 1 then skewed a forehand wide and started punching his sides, Basil Fawlty-style, for he will have known already that his opponent was in the mood to make him pay, operating at near perfection.
The flawlessness was to subside, however, and at 4-3 in the second set unforced errors crept in and two break points were secured. On the first he netted a forehand return, the ringing of a mobile phone not helping matters.
Fan-tastic: Huge crowds gathered at the All England Club to watch Murray's matchOn the second Nadal pummelled him with an awesome combination of groundstrokes, seizing control of the rally immediately. Fortune favoured the braver, more experienced man and the break was saved.
The tiebreak was like a tug of war until 5-5, when the 2008 champion gave his first hint of humanity, throwing in a double fault. Again Murray could not take advantage, sending down an 84mph second serve that Nadal jumped on to dictate matters, ending up with a backhand volley winner.
Then came that fateful net cord and suddenly it was 2-0, a position from which Nadal has lost only once before, when he was 18.
What price a Spanish double: Nadal has kept Spanish hopes alive of sporting success at Wimbledon and the World CupMurray tucked into some second serves to secure his first break when it was least needed — at the start of the third. But the world No 4’s serve started to wane and when he threw in a double fault to offer two break points, the invitation was not refused.
He unravelled quickly, but this is what Nadal does to opponents with his relentless pressure — he leaves them in pieces.
Until Murray can find a way to do the extraordinary, and win the biggest points against opposition of this incredible calibre, the long wait will go on. Nobody said it was easy.
source: dailymail
