Madrid Masters 2015 Final: Nadal-Murray

[Denis]

Wow, really don't know what to say. It's weird seeing someone that has been so invinceble on this surface for the past 10 years look so pedestrian. That forehand on matchpoint was symbolic of his state of play at the moment.

Congrats to Murray's fans here. Big win for him. Seems like he will be Novak's challenger this season.

 

[tented]

The commentators on Sky have neatly summarised my previous concerns about Andy on clay. Get this...

Until this week Andy Murray had NEVER beaten anyone ranked in the top 8, on clay... never??

That is just a weird anomaly. I mean, tennis is tennis at the end of the day. Murray is too good to have a stat like that...:nono

That's a crazy stat. I would have assumed he'd beaten someone, somewhere, at some point. But never? Weird.

 

[nehmeth]

Muzz w/ his 2nd consecutive clay court title and first masters on clay. Great job!

He's keeping the beard.

 

[Front242]

Pretty good few weeks for Murray. Fair play to him. Good to see him play consistently aggressively and forget the passive Murray we see all too often.

 

[Murat Baslamisli]

So where does Andy Murray rank on the pantheon of great clay courters such as Fabio Fognini, Kei Nishikori, and whoeever else Herios named last year? Has he finally overcome these legends?

Murray is the new king of clay!

:cover

 

[Carol]

Murray can't play out of his mind even if he wanted to since Nadal can't keep the ball in play. So it's a moot point really.

Also, a question to the board: Do we still have to wait for the FO to determine if Nadal is past his prime? I mean, he'll be ranked number 7 in the world after this match. Would winning the FO again somehow nullify everything we've seen for the past 15 months or so?

I think only Carol35 and posters like autopilot would argue such a thing.

I think the more relevant question is what his chances are at RG taking all this into account. Is it really only Novak that will be have a decent chance against him at this point?

Relax, you are not doing better than me with your fav. Muzz is playing really well, so well that I wouldn't be surprised if he plays so well in Rome he would beat your dear Novak.
And remember something, things changes day by day, tournament by tournament. Rafa played worse last year on clay but at the end he won RG :angel: :ras:

 

[Kieran]

So where does Andy Murray rank on the pantheon of great clay courters such as Fabio Fognini, Kei Nishikori, and whoeever else Herios named last year? Has he finally overcome these legends?

There was a brief Nishi bandwagon gathering up speed a couple weeks back. yes, the chap was solid third favourite for Paris, and after how he schooled Rafa last year, etc, a performance that has taken on mythological proportions. Kinda like Stan in Oz.

My bone of contention was that Andy was dismissed with a derisive snort. Well, here's snorting back you, punks...

 

[brokenshoelace]

So where does Andy Murray rank on the pantheon of great clay courters such as Fabio Fognini, Kei Nishikori, and whoeever else Herios named last year? Has he finally overcome these legends?

Murray is the new king of clay!

:cover

Funnily, that's closer to the truth than him being behind Fabio Fognini.

 

[brokenshoelace]

Murray can't play out of his mind even if he wanted to since Nadal can't keep the ball in play. So it's a moot point really.

Also, a question to the board: Do we still have to wait for the FO to determine if Nadal is past his prime? I mean, he'll be ranked number 7 in the world after this match. Would winning the FO again somehow nullify everything we've seen for the past 15 months or so?

I think only Carol35 and posters like autopilot would argue such a thing.

I think the more relevant question is what his chances are at RG taking all this into account. Is it really only Novak that will be have a decent chance against him at this point?

Relax, you are not doing better than me with your fav. Muzz is playing really well, so well that I wouldn't be surprised if he plays so well in Rome he would beat your dear Novak.
And remember something, things changes day by day, tournament by tournament. Rafa played worse last year on clay but at the end he won RG :angel: :ras:

Not worse than he did today. This was legitimately his worst I've ever seen him play anywhere.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

I have not seen other matches of Rafa at Madrid. But, here is my assessment of his play at this time.

On the positive side, his serve has improved and his movement has also improved compared to his recent past performance this year.

On the negative side, he still hit s a lot of short balls and also he is shanking a lot (this is probably caused by fiddling around with different racquets).

 

[tented]

Shout out to Aung Aung and TennisFanatic7 for picking Murray in two. :clap

 

[Kieran]

Wow, really don't know what to say. It's weird seeing someone that has been so invinceble on this surface for the past 10 years look so pedestrian. That forehand on matchpoint was symbolic of his state of play at the moment.

Congrats to Murray's fans here. Big win for him. Seems like he will be Novak's challenger this season.

Novak's challenger? Nadal is the champion.

Or were you thinking about Rome?

 

[nehmeth]

Rafa played worse last year on clay but at the end he won RG

uzzled Really? He played worse than that??

Time to get rid of the medical weed. :snicker

 

[Front242]

The short balls from Nadal are killing him but luckily for him most don't take full advantage. Even Andy didn't take full advantage of all the short balls but unless Nadal fixes that he's gonna be losing sets to a lot of players and making his life difficult. It's like the day he lost to Soderling played on endless repeat in his clay matches this season.

 

[Srini]

Poor stuff from Rafa overall, but even had he won, he still has to work very hard. Great show by Andy, I'm actually glad for the guy, he really looks cool and in control since he got married. He's playing great tennis and no matter what he does next week in Rome, I think he's got this and last years RG to point to, giving him confidence for Paris...

Well am glad marriage has positive effect on some people at least :snicker

 

[Kieran]

Rafa played worse last year on clay but at the end he won RG

uzzled Really? He played worse than that??

Time to get rid of the medical weed. :snicker

Well, he was being "schooled" by Nishi in the final, it could have been a similar outcome, but we'll never know, of course...

 

[DarthFed]

Pleasant surprise. One thing to win the Mickey Mouse tourney last week, whole different animal winning an MS on clay and destroying Nadal in the final. Never figured Murray would win an MS on clay, congrats to him

 

[Fiero425]

Commentator on TC just said this would equal Rafa's worst ever result on clay if it ends 6-3, 6-2.

(Now watch the Djokovic fans "like" this post. )

celeb:

:angel: :dodgy: :ras:

 

[TennisFanatic7]

Well that was absolutely dump from Rafa but take nothing away from what Andy was able to do today. He didn't play amazing but he didn't have to and he didn't make the common mistake of trying to against Rafa on clay. There were times where he faced break point and he was always able to step it up, too.

A very sensible performance tactically and this is where it pays off making the finals of these tournaments consistently this year even if he has been knocked off by Nole each time. Without those deep runs he may not have been able to produce that performance in that manner today if it's his first or second big final since he had his back surgery, though we'll never know for sure.

I hope he goes ahead and plays in Rome next week as he may as well keep up the momentum and physically, he looks fine, this wasn't exactly a physical slog today.

A real unexpected treat this fortnight has been, let's see what he can do in Rome and Paris .

Perhaps he should have tied the knot with Kim a few years earlier, unbeaten as a married man!

Also:
- First Masters 1000 title on clay
- First win over Nadal (or Djokovic or Federer, though he's never played Roger) on clay
- First win over Nadal (or Djokovic or Federer) since back surgery
- First Masters 1000 final on clay
- First Masters 1000 title since back surgery

 

[Carol]

Congrats Muzz, you have played much better than Rafa and anyone else, you have deserved to win this Tournament :clap