Rafael Nadal believes he will require living up to his name as the 'King of soil to beat Andy Murray in the French Open semi-finals. A win would keep alive his hopes of equalling Bjorn Borg's evidence of six titles. The Spaniard, who turns 25 on Friday, will go into the fight as the heavy favorite because of his unbelievable record at Roland Garros, where he has won 43 matches and only lost one.
Murray, in the meantime, will play in the last four in Paris for the first time, but Nadal is a great admirer of the Scotsman's talents. He said:Playing against Andy is always a big challenge since you know how good he is. He has all the shots. He can defend very well, he can assault very well, and he runs unbelievable.The only way that you can beat him is playing at a very, very high level. With no that it would be unfeasible. That's what I'm going to try to do.
Both have had eventful paths from side to side to the last four; withAndy Murray ache his right ankle then almost deafening out to Viktor Troicki in round four while Nadal was two sets to one down in his first-round match against John Isner.
The fourth seed, which also wanted a crisis trip to the dentist on Wednesday after breaking a tooth biting into a baguette, come into view much less troubled by his wound in his quarter-final win over Juan Ignacio Chela and Nadal does not believe it will be a factor.
He added:I did the same thing in the past and you feel pain but, in my opinion, it does not limit you when you are live, so I don't think that's going to affect him and his self-assurance.I think he will not have pain any longer. He'll be 100%.
Murray is hoping all his travails can be the forerunner to a glorious victory, saying:I'm happy that I'm in the semis. But it's not worth going through what I've gone through the last four or five days to just be happy receiving to the semis.The other semi-final pits Roger Federer next to Novak Djokovic, and victory for the Serb would see him overtake Nadal as world number one as well as equalling John McEnroe's 1984 record start to a season of 42 successive wins.
Meanwhile, Francesca Schiavone moved to within one victory of a second consecutive French Open title with a 6-3 6-3 win over home hope Marion Bartoli in the semi-finals on Thursday. The Italian will face China's Li Na, who follow up her run to the final of the Australian Open with a repeat presentation here by removal out Maria Sharapova 6-4 7-5. The 29-year-old said:I'm keyed up. This is my first time in the final so I just need to take one more step and then my dream will come true.