Nadal To Play Monfils In Monte Carlo Masters Final

Eight-time winner Rafael Nadal recovered from a set down to beat Britain’s Andy Murray to reach the Monte Carlo Masters final.

Murray broke twice to take the opening set 6-2, but wilted under the Spaniard’s power and accuracy to lose the next two 6-4, 6-2.

The win was Nadal’s seventh over Murray in eight meetings on clay and puts him into his 100th ATP World Tour final.

He faces Gael Monfils who beat fellow Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-1, 6-3.

Murray beat Nadal for the first time on clay in last year’s Madrid Masters final, but his hopes of being only the third player to earn back-to-back victories over the world number five on the surface were dashed in a brutal two-and-a-half-hour encounter.

Monfils overwhelms TsongaNadal will start a short-priced favourite when he plays France’s number 13 seed Gael Monfils in Sunday’s final.

Monfils started underdog against compatriot and eighth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the other semi, but took advantage of his opponent’s sluggishness around the court to dominate throughout.

Tsonga was a shadow of the player who beat Roger Federer in Friday’s quarter-final and even when he managed to break Monfils to get back on serve at 4-3 in the second set, he immediately lost his own again, allowing his compatriot to close out the match in comfort.

Credit: BBC

Nadal To Play Monfils In Monte Carlo Masters Final