Abu Dhabi: Murray wins a duel against Nadal
Andy Murray won a place in the semifinals of the Mubadala World Tennis Championships with a clear 6: 3, 6: 2 win over Dan Evans. Rafael Nadal will be waiting there tomorrow.
by tennisnet.com
last edit:
Dec 16, 2021, 04:42 pm
Amazing but true: Dan Evans has been playing on the ATP tour for 15 years, Andy Murray even a few months longer. And yet the two Brits have never met for an official match. The quarter-final match at the Mubadala Tennis World Championships in Abu Dhabi will not be included in the eternal statistics of the men's tour. In any case, Murray and Evans took it seriously in their premiere duel. Very seriously.
In the end Andy Murray came out on top with a surprisingly smooth 6: 3 and 6: 2. And so he can play against his superior Rafael Nadal in the semifinals. A first indicator of whether the current probationary collaboration between Murray and Jan de Witt could be of a longer duration? In any case, the three-time major champion was in a great mood. And astonishingly often online.
De Witt and Murray recently spent a week of training together in London, the experienced coach from Germany has already worked with players like Gilles Simon, Gael Monfils and most recently Nikoloz Basilashvili.
Evans instead of Thiem at the start
Dan Evans, on the other hand, stepped in at short notice as Dominic Thiem's substitute. The distances were not particularly far - Evans has his living and training seat in Dubai for the offseason. The 31-year-old was most recently at the Davis Cup in Innsbruck. There Evans was eliminated with the British team in the quarter-finals against Germany.
In the first match of the three-day exhibition tournament, Denis Shapovalov and Talyor Fritz didn't stay long: Shapovalov won 6: 3 and 6: 0 and met Andrey Rublev in the semi-finals on Friday. Incidentally, Fritz and Shapovalov will be group opponents of the German team at the ATP Cup. As US number one, Fritz will meet Alexander Zverev there, Shapovalov will face Jan-Lennard Struff.
Fritz also has something else to do in Abu Dhabi: He's playing for fifth place against Dan Evans.