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Oct 9,2026 06:37 AM IST

Nadal reaches French Open final

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Sports Home French Open 2011 News Nadal reaches French Open final

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Nadal reaches French Open final

Rafael Nadal moved to within one win of equalling Bjorn Borg's record of six French Open titles with a hard-fought yet convincing 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 semi-final win over a battling Andy Murray on Friday.

Read Time: 3 min

Paris:

Rafael Nadal moved to within one win of equalling Bjorn Borg's record of six French Open titles with a hard-fought yet convincing 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 semi-final win over a battling Andy Murray on Friday.

It was a perfect way to celebrate his 25th birthday for the Spaniard, but he was made to scrap hard by the Scot who shrugged off the effects of an ankle injury to produce his best ever performance on clay.

The win sets up the five-times defending champion and top seed for a mouthwatering final on Sunday against the winner of the other semi-final opposing second seed Novak Djokovic and third seed Roger Federer.

For Murray, seeded four, his feisty performance was a fitting way to end a brave campaign that saw him battle through illness, a twisted ankle and a broken tooth as he continued his quest for a first Grand Slam title.

His only regret could be only converting three of the 18 break points he had on the Nadal serve.

"Andy is a fantastic player. He deserves to win a Grand Slam very soon," said Nadal.

"I saved a lot of break points at important moments. The conditions were not easy with the wind changing a lot.

"I will be playing next against the best player of all time (Federer) or against the best player at the moment (Djokovic), so we shall see."

Nadal went into the match as a strong favourite having taken his record at Roland Garros to 43-1 with an impressive straight sets quarter-final victory over Robin Soderling, the only man to have beaten him here.

Murray was playing his first French Open semi-final in his fifth campaign in Paris and he had lingering doubts over the right ankle he turned in his third round defeat of Michael Berrer.

The first four games were closely fought and took 28 minutes to complete but by the end of them Nadal had taken a 3-1 lead after Murray failed to convert the three break points he had.

More worrying still for the Scot was that he twice winced in pain when turning and twisting on his right ankle and was clearly not fully fit.

Nadal turned the screw to take a 5-1 lead but played an uncustomary sloppy game when serving for the set as Murray got back one of the service breaks.

He had to save two break points two games later, but dug deep to take the opening set 6-4 in 62 minutes, leaving the Herculean task facing Murray looking even tougher.

Still it was Murray who was mostly dominating the rallies going into the second set as he dragged Nadal about from side to side with his angled drives from the baseline.

But the Spaniard typically flung up his peerless defences and it was Murray who ceded serve first with an error-strewn fifth game.

A Nadal double fault gave Murray the break back to level at 3-3, and he rattled the Spaniard further in the following game before double-faulting himself on game point to allow Nadal to break again.

Murray made it four breaks in a row to level at 4-4, but despite some heroic resistance against a rampaging Nadal, he dropped serve again in the 11th game and Nadal served out for a two sets lead.

That seemed to break Murray's spirit and after dropping his serve to open the third set there was no way back for him as Nadal stormed through to his sixth final in seven years at Roland Garros.

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Topics mentioned in this article

Tennis Andy Murray Juan Martin del Potro Rafael Nadal Novak Djokovic Venus Williams Jie Zheng Mahesh Bhupathi French Open 2011 French Open 2011 French Open 2011

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Asian Games 2026 Medals Tally

No. Country G S B Total 1

People's Republic of China

People's Republic of China 169 89 83 341 2

Japan

Japan 83 95 91 269 3

Republic of Korea

Republic of Korea 39 43 68 150 4

India

India 21 27 37 85 5

Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan 21 25 24 70

Full Medals Table

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