Tennis:Andy Murray will need to come through "one of the best challenges in tennis" tomorrow if he is to reach a first French Open final. The world number four takes on world number one Rafael Nadal, who is bidding to equal Bjorn Borg's record of six titles at Roland Garros, a venue where he has only ever lost one match.
Both have had eventful paths through to the last four, with Murray hurting his right ankle then almost crashing out to Viktor Troicki while Nadal was two sets to one down in his first-round match against John Isner.
The Scot has never made a secret of how much he likes and admires Nadal, and said: “It’s one of the best challenges in tennis. His record here is incredible. I’m looking forward to it but I understand it’s going to be an incredibly difficult match for me.
“That’s why I need to make sure I do all the right things, watch some videos of matches that I played against him, and recover. Because you’re going to need all of your reserves to get through a match with Rafa at the French.”
Murray’s dramas continued yesterday with an emergency trip to the dentist to repair a tooth he cracked eating a baguette, but he is confident he has enough mental energy to take on Nadal.
“I needed to fight back against Troicki in tough circumstances but all my matches except that one were straight sets,” the Scot said.
“It has been a tough few days for me mentally. I’m glad I’ve got a day off where I can rest and recover. It does make a big difference; 48 hours are enough to recover and calm myself down and take everything in and go from there.
“I’m happy that I’m in the semis. It’s a good result. But it’s not worth going through what I’ve gone through the last four or five days to just be happy getting to the semis.”
Nadal has looked as vulnerable as he ever has at Roland Garros and, far from playing down his struggles, the Spaniard has been keen to describe in detail his mental and physical problems.
However, he looked back to his old self in his quarter-final win over Robin Soderling, the only man to have beaten him here, and Murray is not expecting any help.
The 24-year-old said: “He’s still playing pretty good, so I know Rafa will play excellent tennis against me. We’ve had some really good matches and he’s always played well. Even in practice he plays well against me, so I don’t expect him to play badly.”
Although Murray has lost all three of their previous matches on clay, he can take encouragement from their most recent meeting in Monte Carlo in April, when he pushed the world number one to three sets.
He followed that up by coming as close as anyone to beating Novak Djokovic this year in the semi-finals in Rome.
Murray said of that match: “It was definitely one of the best clay-court matches I’ve played. And also my match with Rafa a couple weeks before in Monte Carlo was a very high level.
“I have to maintain that for a long period. I’ll have to play as well as I did on those days to give myself a chance.”
Murray’s ankle affected him less against Juan Ignacio Chela yesterday than it had in his win over Troicki and Nadal does not believe it will be a factor in the result.
The Spaniard, who turns 25 tomorrow, said: “I did the same thing in the past and you feel pain but, in my opinion, it is not limiting you when you are playing, so I don’t think that’s going to affect him and his confidence. He’s playing well.”
Nadal added: “Playing against Andy is always a big challenge because you know how good he is. He has all the shots. He can defend very well, he can attack very well, he runs fantastic.
“The only way that you can beat him is playing at a very, very high level. Without that it would be impossible. That’s what I’m going to try to do.”