Murray comeback sets up Nadal semi
BRITISH No1 Andy Murray insists he is relishing the prospect of facing old adversary Rafael Nadal after battling his way into a second successive Wimbledon semi-final.
Fourth seed Murray showed his trademark grit to recover from losing the first set against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and beat the Frenchman 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-5), 6-2, 6-2.
Victory thrust the Scot into a fourth Grand Slam semi-final and kept alive his dream of becoming Britain’s first winner of a major tournament since Fred Perry in 1936.
Second seed Nadal, his friend and former junior rival, stands between him and a place in Sunday’s final, but Murray is optimistic about his chances of upsetting the odds and defeating the musclebound Mallorcan.
“It’ll be a great match,” said the 23-year-old from Dunblane. “It’s always fun playing against him. We’ve played four times in Slams and it’s 2-2 so I’ll look forward to it.”
Murray had not dropped a set on his way to the quarter-finals, so found himself in unfamiliar territory when 10th seed Tsonga snatched a closely contested first set on the tie-break.
Australian Open finalist Murray hit back with an early break in the second set, but allowed Tsonga to do likewise and needed all his fighting qualities to edge the eventual tie-break.
It proved to be something of a turning point, and when Murray earned the first of two breaks in the third, the Centre Court crowd began to sense there would only be one winner. Having snared the third set in ruthless fashion, Murray was similarly clinical in taking the fourth and wrapping up his first comeback triumph of this year’s competition.
“It was really tough,” Murray added. “The first couple of sets, we both had chances and neither of us could take them so we had the tie-breaks. I was having to do a lot of defending, but I played very well the last couple of sets.”
Nadal, meanwhile, continued his shaky form by losing the first set before beating
Swedish sixth seed Robin Soderling 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4), 6-1.
ORDER OF PLAY | TODAY
CENTRE COURT
V?Zvonareva (Rus) (21) v T Pironkova (Bul)
S Williams (USA) (1) v P Kvitova (Cze)