Second seed Rafael Nadal to play Nicolas Kiefer in Rogers Cup final
Published Sunday July 27th, 2008
TORONTO - Andy Murray moved well, served well and returned well. The world's ninth-ranked player had one of the better games of his career against Rafael Nadal in a Rogers Cup semifinal on Saturday and it still wasn't nearly enough.
So what chance does Nicolas Kiefer have?
Nadal defeated Murray 7-6 (2), 6-3 in semifinal action at the $2.6-million tournament, creating a Sunday final between the world's No. 2 player and No. 37 Kiefer, who hasn't won an ATP tournament since 2000.
"All I can do is go out there and fight," Kiefer said.
Of course, this is the Rogers Cup, where no seed has been safe. Nadal was the only player in the top seven seeds to make it as far as the semifinals, and such heavyweights as Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic have already been ousted by supposedly lesser players.
But Nadal seems to be operating on another level right now.
"You know, he's definitely doing a lot of things better than he was in the past," Murray said. "I think he's moving better on hard courts, and I think he's sort of changing the pace of the ball a little bit more and not playing so far behind the baseline like he did in the past. ...
"That's why I think he'll be No. 1 in the world soon."
First he has to beat Kiefer. He's done it three times before. In fact, Nadal's never dropped a set to the German, who defeated France's Gilles Simon 6-7 (4), 6-3, 7-6 (5) earlier Saturday.
"He's a very aggressive player, no?" Nadal said. "Very good serve. He's good going to the volley. He has not bad control, very good control with the backhand.
"I'm going to try to play an aggressive match. I'm going to try to play inside the court and try to move him."
Said Kiefer: "Of course, I have to pick up one more level."
Murray certainly did, but Nadal seemed to use it as motivation to take his own game up a notch.
"I played against Andy very good today because he - my opinion, he played one of his best matches against me," Nadal said.
An uncharacteristically aggressive Murray went shot-for-shot with Nadal in the first set, during which both players held serve. It wasn't until the tiebreak that he flinched. Down 2-6, Murray double-faulted on set point.
He still came out strong in the second set. It took 18 points for Nadal to hold serve in the first game, and when Nadal broke Murray in the fourth game, the gangly Scotsman broke back in the fifth.
But Nadal wore him down. Murray wound up with 40 unforced errors to Nadal's 16, and lost despite firing 14 more winners than Nadal.
He said the margin of error was just too small for him to keep pace.
"I made a few too many errors, and he played solid like always," he said.
Still, Murray felt positive after the match. It's hard to get down when you lose to someone like Nadal.
"Yeah, I thought I played well, that's for sure," he said. "Yeah, there's a few things I could have done a little bit better. You know, against someone like it him it comes down to ... five or six points which can change the match."
Nadal will be playing for his fifth straight title on Sunday and his third Rogers Cup title. He hasn't lost since Rome in May. And in his last four finals, he's defeated Federer three times and Djokovic once.
But he says he's not taking a win against Kiefer for granted.
"I played a very good tournament, but tomorrow makes a lot of difference win or lose one final, no?"
Kiefer's match, unlike Nadal's, was a plodding affair that lasted two hours 59 minutes. A subdued crowd didn't seem to take an interest until the final tiebreak.
Simon, ranked 22nd, mostly traded groundstrokes from the baseline with Kiefer. As he's done all tournament, Simon played patiently, kept the ball in play and waited for Kiefer to make mistakes. And, again, it worked, as Kiefer made 69 unforced errors.
But Simon made a few too many of errors of his own. Up 5-4 in the third set, Simon had a ball gently bounce high in front of him and he primed for an overhead smash, before launching the ball into the bottom of the net.
He finished with 32 unforced errors of his own, and only capitalized on three of 13 break-point opportunities.
Still, Simon said he was pleased.
"I didn't need to play a long match like this, but it was a great fight," Simon said. "I'm proud of the match I've done. ...
"I just gave all I had today. I just wanted to win."
Kiefer, meanwhile, hit the ball fairly well, connecting on 50 winners and 12 aces.
"I didn't play my best tennis, but in the important moments I could pick up my game and I was playing pretty good," he said.
In doubles action, Toronto's Daniel Nestor and Serbian partner Nenad Zimonjic advanced to the final with a 6-3, 7-6 (5) win over India's Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic.
The No. 2 seeds will play Americans Mark and Bob Bryan who beat Australia's Paul Hanley and Jordan Kerr 6-3, 6-4.
Notes: Simon won't have to wait long for another crack at Kiefer. They've drawn each other in the first round of next week's ATP tournament at Cincinnati. "Yeah, the revenge," said Simon with a laugh.
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