ABU DHABI // Andy Murray will undergo a scan on his left shoulder this afternoon before confirming his participation in Saturday’s final of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship.
The Briton easily defeated Rafael Nadal 6-2, 6-0 in their semi-final at Zayed Sports City on Friday night to set up a three-set final with world No 1 Novak Djokovic. Yet he was noticeably troubled by the shoulder pain between games in his victory and later called it “strange” given he has never felt any pain in that part of his body before.
“It’s a bit sore – I don’t know exactly what happened,” said Murray, the world No 6. “It was quite painful at the end, and it’s quite strange because I’ve never had anything happen to my left shoulder before. I use it on my backhand, but not so much and never had an issue.”
Murray had treatment on the shoulder on Friday night. Before making any call on whether he will pull out of this evening’s exhibition final, he will have further treatment on Friday followed by an ultrasound scan.
He refused to rule out the possibility of withdrawing.
“I’ll need to see how I am when I wake up in the morning,” he said, adding that the pain was less of a problem during points and more acute when lifting a bottle to drink or reaching to sign a ball.
“Sometimes you can just tweak something in a match and after some treatment in the evening, some rest and a good night’s sleep you can be fine. We’ll need to wait and see, but I’ll have a scan to check to see if there is anything there.”
Murray had shown ruthlessness in dispatching Nadal, who was making his first appearance since losing to 17-year-old Borna Coric in the Swiss Open quarter-finals at Basel on October 24.
The 14-time grand slam winner and former world No 1 has been dealing with a series of injuries, including wrist and back issues, as well as having his appendix removed.
Before Friday night’s semi-final, Nadal had played just seven matches in six months and maintained his mantra that at this stage results are irrelevant. His focus for now, he said, is simply on racking up competitive minutes on court.
Yet, there were hints of frustration from him at having lost so conclusively.
“At the beginning, I played very bad with my backhand and I was a little bit more tired than usual, but 6-2, 6-0 is too much,” said Nadal, who last dropped a set without winning a single game in 2011 to Roger Federer at the ATP World Tour Finals.
“I had a lot of chances to get a closer result, but that is not the most important thing. The most important thing is I need to improve – and I will improve.”
Nadal was broken in his first service game and never really troubled Murray in the first set as he struggled to direct his backhand over the net and made a series of unforced errors.
He improved in the second, pushing Murray to deuce several times and enduring longer rallies. In the third game of the second set, the Spaniard led 40-0 but failed to capitalise, allowing Murray to save five break points.
By the end of the match, Murray had saved all 12 break points he faced, while Nadal had saved only two of seven.
“It was a tough match,” Murray said. “Sure, 6-2, 6-0 sounds easy, but it was not like that. There were a lot of tough games, long deuce-advantage games. I managed to win a lot of the important points, but it was a good quality match from my side.
“I didn’t expect to play that well. It was a very solid performance and, for the second match of the year, it went as well as I could have hoped.”
Murray will next face Djokovic, whom he failed to beat in four attempts last season, while Nadal will meet Stan Wawrinka in the third-place play-off.
“It will be a very good test,” Murray said. “To play against Lopez, Nadal and then Djokovic is a fantastic way to start the year, in front of a big crowd and a good atmosphere. If I can play my best, I will make it very tough for Novak.”
gmeenaghan@thenational.ae
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