Nadal Fit and Firing | Thebigtip

From guardian.co.uk

Bad knees? Not at his best? Rafael Nadal put paid to the speculation today with a sparkling performance against Andy Murray. The world No1 rarely put a foot wrong as he played exquisite tennis – his best of the tournament – to reach his fourth Wimbledon final in straight sets, 6-4, 7-6, 6-4.

In a match that began with hardly a chink of light separating the two, the world No1 rose to the occasion, lifting his game beyond the reaches of Murray, tightening the screw until there could be only one conclusion. Every talent that Nadal is praised for – athleticism, determination, power – came to the fore, underlining the reasons why, even at the height of Murraymania, a Wimbledon Centre Court crowd will still yell, "Come on Rafa!"

The tie-break in the second set was the turning point, as Nadal refused to be rattled despite a nervier set of unforced errors and battling to hold his serve. But as the seven-times grand slam winner absorbed the pressure he threw it straight back at his opponent, the 24-year-old holding on to go two sets to love up.

There was a moment, early in the second set, when Nadal leant over and murmured a request to the umpire who reached for his telephone and made the all-important call. But for what? Could it be a request for medical attention? A glimpse of strapping on Nadal's right thigh had revealed itself, as the Spaniard's long shorts crept up his leg while reaching for a shot. A pregnant pause ensued. Could the much-talked-about tendinitis be rearing its ugly head? Three more hours on court than Murray – Nadal twice having been pushed to a fifth set in this tournament so far – perhaps taking its toll? But the joke was on us as an innocuous bunch of bananas was delivered up from the bowels of the All England Club. In the end, of course, it was banana skins for Murray.

From the outset the Spaniard showed his humility – allowing Murray to make his entrance on to Centre Court, he even appeared to hold back from rising off his chair in between the early games of the first set. Nadal may be the superstar of the sport, the pin-up, the favourite to take the title and even, in a sense, the defending champion now that Roger Federer is missing (the 2008 winner having missed out last year through injury), but he understood that today the Centre Court stage was Murray's, at least in so far as any parochialism came into play.

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