Monte Carlo Masters

[Sir David Gray]

Andy Murray finally ended his losing streak yesterday after winning his first match since the Australian Open in January.

He beat Radek Stepanek in straight sets in the second round. Then, just like waiting for a bus, after waiting 3 months for one victory, two come along in the space of 24 hours as he went on to beat Gilles Simon today, also in straight sets.

He'll now play Frederico Gil, who is a qualifier from Portugal, in the quarter finals tomorrow. If he wins that, he'll likely play Rafael Nadal in the semis on Saturday, who has only ever lost one match at Monte Carlo and that came eight years ago, with Nadal still 16 years old.

[steve75]

currently 5-4 down in the semis against nadal, amazing game of tennis! Murray definitely back to form.

[Sir David Gray]

I missed the whole weekend of the Monte Carlo Masters as I was away at a tennis tournament myself.

I believe Murray played really well yesterday and it's just a shame that his elbow injury became worse during the final set. It was always going to be a big ask for him to beat Nadal anyway on clay as he hasn't lost in a clay court tournament for almost two years and, as I said in my last post, he hasn't lost at Monte Carlo for eight years. When fit and on top form, Nadal is practically unbeatable on clay.

It's great to see Murray getting to the semi finals of a tournament and finally getting that bad run out of the way. This tournament has been excellent preparation for him in the run up to the French Open.

Injuries permitting, he should be moving on to playing in Barcelona this week, where he will be the number two seed behind Nadal.

The good thing here is that, because he's the 2nd seed, he can't meet Nadal until the final.