Fighting Frenchman Simon overcomes Nadal
Rafael Nadal lost in front of his home crowd
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Saturday, 18, Oct 2008 09:05
Frenchman Giles Simon will face Andy Murray in the final of the Madrid Masters after upsetting Rafael Nadal in semi-finals today.
World number one Nadal went in as heavy favourite against the talented, but inexperienced Simon. The home favourite, however, came up against an inspired Simon and lost an epic three-and-a-half-hour match 3-6 7-5 7-6 (8-6).
Things looked to be going according to plan for Nadal in the first set as he broke Simon twice to take the set 6-3. The Spanish fans would have expected their favourite son to go on and set up a mouth-watering final against Murray. But that wasn't to be the case as Simon came storming back.
Simon, ranked number 16 in the world, matched Nadal shot for shot and managed to break the Wimbledon champion twice in the second set. A surprisingly wasteful Nadal could only convert one of his eight break point opportunities in the second set.
Nadal lifted his game in the deciding set and went up 4-2, but Simon fought bravely and broke back to level at 4-4. The Frenchman then produced a couple of marvellous shots in the next game to break Nadal and go 5-4 up and serve for the set. But he was unable to handle the pressure and lost his serve.
But instead of being demoralised, Simon kept fighting and despite being a mini-break down twice in the tie-break, Simon prevailed 8-6 to claim the biggest win of his career.