Andy Murray hammers Kei Nishikori in semi-final – Shanghai Rolex Masters 2011
Defending Champion, Andy Murray of Great Britain went head to head with Japanese, Kei Nishikori in the semi-final of the Shanghai Rolex Masters, contested in China, on Saturday October 15th. The first meeting between
the two Internationals saw the Briton International winning the match in straight sets 6-3, 6-0 in just over fifty-eight minutes.
The Briton International was in sublime form winning all his previous nine encounters and included the triumph over the World No.2, Rafael Nadal, in the Tokyo, Japan. The Japanese, on the other hand, was a surprising entry in the
semi-final as he came all the way to the semi-finals with some major upsets during the tournament. He had lost just two of last nine encounters. Although a mismatch, the Japanese could not be written off completely at the start of the match.
Scottish born, Murray, started the set in an exciting fashion clinching the initial games of the set and putting pressure on the youngster. Nishikori came back well by levelling the score to 3-3 but this was not good enough to
dismantle the focus of the Briton. He clinched the first set by 6-3; breaking his opponent’s serve twice and thumping him on the back foot with five fierce aces.
Japanese had no clue whatsoever about those thumping aces and terrific game play of the Briton and he could see the ball sail past him from the other corner of the court. There was no coming back from such a poor start from the
Japanese and Murray kept on dominating the match in the second set as well.
Trailing with one set and up against the world class player, it was getting extremely difficult for the 21-year-old to make any sort of impact in the game. He was just a mere spectator throughout the second set of the match. World
No.4 didn’t miss any chance to hammer the youngster and rocked in every department of the game.
He won 28 points in the second set and rounded off the game with two aces and three break points. The thumping defeat must have uplifted the confidence of the Briton International who would enter the final as a favourite and would
look to defend his title and clinch the eighth silverware of the year.
Briton International registered a massive 96% winning rate on his first serve and followed it up with 78% return points triumph. It was one of the days Nishikori would like to forget though his advancement throughout the tournament
deserves all sort of appreciation. He unsettled the fourth seed Tsonga in the second round and didn’t look back from there, winning one after another match and managed to reach the semi-finals.
The top ranked Brit is now drawn to defend his title against world number five, David Ferrer in the final.
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