So, after a rain delay forced the final of the BMW Open in Munich to be delayed to Monday, Andy Murray had reached his first clay ever on the ATP tour, a feat which had amazingly actually taken him 10 years to achieve, and a whole 36 years since the last British male had last managed this. Murray would be against the home player in Munich of Philipp Kohlschreiber, and he came through his first clay final in a tough match that saw two tiebreak sets, sandwiched between the only set that Philipp won. This was a great result for Andy who when asked why it had taken so long for a Brit to win another clay title, replied "It shows we are not very good on it", which although funny, is also unfortunately true. (As a Brit this writer has been longing for success on the red dirt for long enough, and we don't seem able to crack it, well until now! )

The pair then had to hot foot it over to Madrid for the Mutua Madrid Open where they were due to meet up again in the second round - Murray had a first round bye, and with Novak Djokovic not playing here, was seeded second, with Rafael Nadal only seeded third here. This is due to missing the end of the season due to illness and not having a very good 11 months anyway. He has not had a good start to the year either as he lost early to players outside of the top 10 in previous tournaments, he did win in Argentina, and here in Madrid, although certainly not back to his best, Rafa is starting to regain his clay court form and has progressed through the rounds with ease as he did not drop a set on route. 

Murray has dropped only one set on his way to his second clay final, to Lukas Rosol, a match itself not without incident. This was the first set of the match, and the only one he has lost, he has played several clay court specialists along the way, including his 2nd and best top 10 win on clay when he routined Kei Nishikori in straight sets 6-3, 6-4 to set up this tantalising final. He will start as the underdog in this final (as he has done in most of the clay matches so far this year), and the head to head is sitting in firmly in Rafael Nadal's favour. The last twice these two met, was in 2014 (baring the exhibition match in Abu Dhabi which Andy won but doesn't appear on the official stats) and Rafa won both these, but he was pushed close in Rome last year. 

He has also had more bad luck with scheduling delays, this time not caused by the weather, but by the tournament organisers who decided to put six matches on centre court in one day, and all the matches went to three sets. Murray was last on the court Wednesday, but didn't actually start his Round 2 match until 1 AM Thursday morning, and he then had to play his Round 3 match Thursday night, (was he feeling a bit of Deja Vu from Munich here?), there will be tiredness involved, but this should be a very good match up. Andy will be keen to see how he plays against an improving Rafa, and with his new found confidence and movement on the clay, who is to say if he can't produce an upset here and take the title away from the King of Clay.

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