Andy Murray Captures ATP Madrid Title

Sunday's final in Madrid marked the close of the eighth ATP Masters Tournament of 2008.  The official end of the tennis season will come with the Paris Tournament and the Masters Cup in Shanghai.

This entire year has been a roundabout of the two top players who have traded grand slams and been favourites to battle one another in finals of every Masters.

Yesterday, Nadal and Federer were well on that track when they both reached the Madrid semifinals.  Nadal saw the French sensation, Gilles Simon, and Federer was caught in a rematch of the US Open final against Andy Murray.  The Scot had only played two matches since the Open, and evidently, this break was just the burst that he needed.

Murray played a beautiful tournament to meet Federer in the semis but was obviously seen as the stark underdog to the World No. 2, especially after the handy beating he took from the Swiss just a month ago.  The two traded 6-3 sets before reaching the deciding third and brought out a side of Murray he probably wished to have seen in Flushing Meadows.

He out-served Federer by leaps and bounds and was able to win 11 straight points on his own service games and pulled out every shot in the book, even a few Federer-like swings, and was able to create match point on a lovely inside-out forehand winner and quickly converted when Roger dumped his perfect backhand into the net.  And so Murray sought his revenge, and was probably expecting to see Nadal seek his own (remember, it was Murray who knocked out Nadal in the US Open semi).  

Later on Saturday, Nadal was in his own backyard... literally.  The Spanish crowd would have loved nothing more than another Nadal-Federer clash, but would settle for a win over Murray.  

Gilles Simon had other intentions.  The Frenchman, who made a name for himself during the US Open Series, had survived by playing four three-set matches and fending off six match points over the course of the week.  Nadal, as predicted, took the first set easily but could not keep the momentum going. Simon took the second set 7-5 and then found himself at his fourth third-set tiebreak of the tournament.  The two stayed one serve until the bitter end, where Simon had a match point on his own serve.  He as usual charged the net, pressuring Nadal, who hit a passing shot a bit too hard.  The ball was called in but Simon, who intentionally let the ball fly by him, challenged the call and was correct, claiming a spot in the championship match against Murray.

The final itself flew by, as Murray quickly dismissed the exhausted Simon in a 6-4, 7-6 victory to become the first Briton to win four ATP titles in a single season.  Murray was quick to humble himself, apologising to the crowd for not being Federer and Nadal, though it's hard to feel badly for them as Federer broke Sampras' all-time prize winnings total and Nadal secured the year-end number No. 1 ranking during the week in Madrid.  

This tournament saw lots of hard hitting and intelligent play, but the driving forces were, and will continue to be, the top two.  Madrid, though, is reminiscent of Melbourne, where both lost in the semis as well. Perhaps the rest of the players on the tour are starting to realise that they have no chance of winning against these two without sophisticating their games.  Or maybe, when they get to the semis, rankings just don't matter anymore.  Regardless, it's getting harder and harder to name the best, but in our hearts there will always be Roger and Rafa.