Goffin to take on Nadal in final after ousting Murray
abu dhabi — Crowd in their hundreds turned up way before time for the evening semifinal at the International Tennis Centre on Friday. It was World No. 1 Andy Murray on centre court and none wanted to miss any action. It was, however, World No. 11 David Goffin, who provided the entertainment and beat Murray 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship.
In the second semifinals, reigning champion Rafael Nadal overcame a tough resistance from World No. 3 Milos Raonic to win 6-1, 3-6, 6-3.
And now it will be Goffin against Nadal for the ultimate crown on Saturday afternoon.
It may be the stature of the opponent or the Abu Dhabi weather but it was a more determined performance from ‘La Goff ’ then seen on the opening day against his friend Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. There were quite a few cross court Goffin winners that made Murray look ordinary. The World No. 1 responded with few gems but as the game went on, Murray’s influence on the game waned.
Goffin stretched the Scot and took the first set to tiebreaker, which the Belgian settled with an ace for 6-4. The World No. 11 pocketed the first set 7-6 in 56 minutes.
And by now, the Abu Dhabi crowd, sensing something special, began to back Goffin.
The second set was neck-andneck fight. Goffin went 2-1 ahead but lost his serve. Murray crawled back to make it 3-2 and after a brief tussle at 40-40 made it 4-2. What followed was an awesome combination of serves that set up winners and aggressive baseline play that saw Goffin give Murray a hiding. From 2-4 down, Goffin turned the tables and bagged four straight games. Goffin, on his first tour to the Middle East, ended up with a famous win and hordes of new fans.
In the second semifinal, Nadal, as usual, hurried through Raonic in the first set to win it 6-1. A repeat of Thursday match against Tomas Berdych was on the cards but there was a twist this time around.
Raonic came back into the match with his main weapon – pounding Nadal with fast serves. At times, there was 40kph difference between the two and the Canadian capitalised to win second set 6-3.
Raonic was sublime with returns but Nadal was ferocious. In the decider, the Spaniard had the upper hand to win 6-3 and the match in 1 hour and 42 minutes.
Earlier, in the fifth-sixth place playoffs, World No. 12 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga beat No. 10 Tomas Berdych 6-7, 6-3, 10-3.