Murray starts year in fine style

Eurosport - Sun, 04 Jan 18:40:00 2009

Britain's Andy Murray defeated world number one Rafael Nadal 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 in the final of the Abu Dhabi exhibition to score a crucial blow ahead of the Australian Open.

TENNIS; Andy Murray celebrates winning in Abu Dhabi, Jan 2009 - 0

The world number four had a double reason to celebrate his 2hr 43min win with this three-day event representing the first time he had beaten both Nadal and world number two Roger Federer in the same tournament.

Murray will get the chance to repeat his achievement when he joins Nadal and Federer at the Qatar Open in Doha from Monday, the opening week of the 2009 competitive season.

The Scotsman also picked up the winner-takes-all cheque of 250,000 dollars for his win over Nadal, the reigning French Open, Wimbledon and Olympic champion.

"It is a great start to the year. I worked very hard on my fitness and game in November and December and both Rafa and Roger played great tennis, so I am delighted that I could beat them," said the 21-year-old who had defeated Federer in the semi-finals on Friday.

"Right now, all I can say is that I am feeling very tired. It was a tough match and he made me run a lot. This is just the first week of the year and you do feel it in the body."

Nadal, who missed the season-ending Masters Cup in Shanghai last year because of a knee injury, was playing his first event in more than two months, and was delighted with his game and health.

"Today was a very good test for the knee. It was a two hour 45 minutes of high-quality, and I'm feeling very well," said the Spaniard who now has a 5-2 record over Murray.

On Murray, Nadal added: "He was very good towards the end of last year, and he is really playing well right now. I think he has got a great chance in Australia. I thought I played very good, but obviously, Andy played a little better."

Murray took the first set after breaking Nadal on his third break point in the third game and, in almost an action-replay of the opener, the Scotsman broke in the fifth game of the second set to go 3-2 up.

But Nadal came back in sensational fashion from 15-40 down in the sixth game and won it on the first break point to even the scores at 3-3. He then took the next service game at love.

He had two set points which he converted immediately to take the second set 7-5.

The first seven games of the final set was tennis of the highest quality from both players. Almost each game went the distance and involved spectacular rallies and amazing shots.

Murray broke in the seventh game, which lasted 14 minutes, on his second break point.

Once Nadal lost that game, Murray quickly closed out the affair by breaking him again in the ninth game.

AFP

Comment 20 - 39 of 99

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  1. nadal play is still pridictable..murray a complets player now..

    From nthk8, on Sat 3 Jan 7:43PM

  2. nadal lose becus he wore the wrong shirt wif sleeves.murrray won cus he shave,dye n cut his hair..

    From nthk8, on Sat 3 Jan 7:41PM

  3. well done Andy ant it ia long long way to go. don't take things easy

    From Sunil Perera, on Sat 3 Jan 7:32PM

  4. Andy Murray is a very good player indeed but it would be quite early to say that he is going to challenge the NO 1 by beating the likes of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in grand slams finals .

    From waleed1jami, on Sat 3 Jan 7:15PM

  5. THIS IS ALL USE NEED TO KNOW. MURRAY VS NADAL - murray won the last 2 , MURRAY VS FEDDERER - murray won the last 2, MURRAY VS DJOKOVIC - murray won last 2. prooves to me he must be improving and catching these guys

    From leona, on Sat 3 Jan 7:07PM

  6. come on andy greatest british,sorry scottish tennis player for decades ,henman never half the player of murry

    From GARY, on Sat 3 Jan 6:59PM

  7. we shouldn,t be carried away by this win as murray chicken's out when it comes to the crunch. he must be serious contender in the most important tournaments. please, don't play the Jelena Jankovic style or you'll be burnt out before the real tournament. don't forget, tsonger, njokovic, and others are there in the line to meet you. when you succeed in crushing them, it will show the talents in this scotish man. Beating federa and nadal should not be your focus. they have better standing in their positions. so they can relax with you when they play and not ncessarily that you are a better player.
    Anyway, goodluck.. You just have to win tournaments great like the sw london, french us and australia to be accepted.

    From Augustine A, on Sat 3 Jan 6:24PM

  8. well done Andy, sure hope it doesn't get to his head too much though but I'm afraid the Scottsman that I am, I'm still a Federer fan and hope he claims back his Wimbledon title and holds the US again.

    Not too sure if Andy is a great person to choose for the Australian as he has never put in a fantastic performance and obviously wont be winning the french any time soon whilst Nadal is about.

    So to me this isn't going to a year for Andy in the slam's but I think he'll do damn well and get the world no.3 spot!

    Good luck Andy Murray!

    From elliot_jennings, on Sat 3 Jan 6:24PM

  9. great tennis andy murray pity your a jock

    From dave j, on Sat 3 Jan 6:19PM

  10. Well done Murray the great. Fantastic tennis indeed.You have started the year right and am optimistic you are heading to top the ladder if you keep your form.Do not take any chances because Nadal and federer still remain incredidibly good tennis players.
    From Vincent. U.

    From vincent, on Sat 3 Jan 6:17PM

  11. congrat. to Murray who is really showing great Quality of Tennis. But why is he mentioned as "Murray from Britain" when he wins, and "the scot lost", I just don't get it. Anyway, this year looks promising and hopefully the King will claim his Kingdom back, COME ON RODGER...
    DEC 09, Federer 1st, Murray 2nd, Simon 3rd, Djokovitch 4th :)

    From saoud, on Sat 3 Jan 6:07PM

  12. Cant believe a fellow Liverpool fan - lard used the p!!ck word to describe Scotsman Murray. Where would LFC be without its Scottish input over the years? Anyway well done Andy and good luck for the rest of the year.

    From Wm, on Sat 3 Jan 6:05PM

  13. if only u were english andy you would be on every back page henman couldn,t do what u did in ths tournament so well done keep it up mon the scots

    From SUTTON, on Sat 3 Jan 6:02PM

  14. should be "LARD AR$E" get over a comment made when he was set up by the media-support your fellow Brit. Once again well done Andy

    From D-bol, on Sat 3 Jan 6:00PM

  15. congrats !!! Andy But don't be carried away it's d beginning of d matador's reign

    From omobolajamiu, on Sat 3 Jan 5:50PM

  16. i didn't watch this match because i couldn't find this channel! but i read all live comments. i think rafa wanted to begin new season with a championship but unfortunately murray played better than rafael. well done Andy! nice start to new season. but im a rafael fan!

    vamos rafa!

    From sileirem, on Sat 3 Jan 5:43PM

  17. well done andy . its great to be scottish

    From kenny, on Sat 3 Jan 5:40PM

  18. in reply to 'Lards' message. Your just jealous cause Andys doing well. Infact a think your a tit. C'mon the scots!!!!!!

    From Zander, on Sat 3 Jan 5:40PM

  19. i couldn't watch this match because i didn't find channel, [stupid turkish channels!] :S but i read all live comments. i think rafa wanted to begin new season, with a championship. Unfortunately andy played better than rafael! well done andy! But im a rafael fan :P Vamos Rafa.

    From sileirem, on Sat 3 Jan 5:38PM

  20. Good for Murray, not many players have defeated both number one and numer two in same tournament!

    From Alexandar, on Sat 3 Jan 5:38PM
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