Murray hammers Ancic, Nadal awaits

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 11:26

The prospect of an ATP World Tour event on Saturday.

The Scottish world No.4 eased into his second Tour final of the year when he hammered Croat Mario Ancic for the loss of just three games, before Aussie Open champ Nadal got past Gael Monfils 6-4, 6-4.

After some less-than-convincing displays on his way to the last four this week, second-seeded Murray upped his game considerably on semi-finals day as he thrashed Ancic 6-1, 6-2 in 61 minutes.

World No.28 Ancic had been playing some good tennis in Rotterdam en route to the last four but was simply demolished by Murray.

Time and again Murray outplayed Ancic from the back of the court and when the Croat ventured into the net the Briton picked him off with accurate passing shots.

The giant Croats game fell apart in the middle section of the match. He managed to hold his second service game to make it 1-3, but then lost seven successive games as Murray raced into a 6-1, 4-0 lead.

Ancic finally stopped the rot by securing a couple of face-saving holds of serve but the damage had already been done.

“I played very well today, obviously returned better than in my previous matches and hopefully I can keep the same form again tomorrow,” said Murray, who confirmed he had pulled out of next weeks Marseille event because of an ankle injury.

“I don’t actually know what I did to my ankle,” admitted Murray. “I finished the match [against Marc Gicquel on Friday], went to see my fitness trainer to get stretched and warm down after the match.

“Half an hour after I stopped it was starting to hurt quite badly, walking down stairs was not so comfortable and this morning, same thing again.

“I went to see the physio here; got some treatment on it, some anti-inflammatories, got my ankle taped for the match and it was hurting a bit towards the end, and a little bit at the start until I warmed up, so I’m hoping it’s going to be OK for the final.”

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