Injured Murray delighted with win

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 12:18

The world number four claimed his second ATP title of the year with a 6-3 4-6 6-0 victory over the Spaniard, who was clearly hampered by a knee injury. It was the second time this year Murray has beaten Nadal and the magnitude of the 21-year-old’s victory was underlined by the fact he was suffering an ankle injury which has forced him to pull out of next week’s Marseille Open.

Murray told the ATP’s website, atpworldtour.com: “It’s been a great week here and I feel like I’ve played better as the week has progressed.”

He added: “After my ATP World Tour Masters 1000 wins, this has to count as one of my biggest victories. I’ve got a bit of a sore ankle so I’ll get some rest this week before heading out to Dubai.”

Nadal had to receive treatment to his right knee after the third game of the second set, which included seven service breaks.

The 22-year-old soldiered on to take the set but the injury caused him to struggle with his serve before he capitulated in the third.

Murray admitted he would liked to have beaten a fully-fit Nadal.

“Obviously it’s not the way you want to win as I could see Rafa had an injury,” he continued.

“I thought the first set was good quality and then at the start of the second, when I saw that he was injured, my concentration and level of play dipped.

“He made it difficult as he was hitting the ball so hard and being aggressive on every shot to try and keep the points short. It just shows how he good he is that he can beat me on one leg!”

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