Andy Murray believes he can knock Rafael Nadal out of Wimbledon if he heads into today's semi-final with the right mental attitude.
Andy Murray believes he can knock Rafael Nadal out of Wimbledon if he heads into today's semi-final with the right mental attitude.
Murray beat Nadal in their last match but recognises the man from Mallorca is a worthy favourite ahead of their 11th career meeting.
"He will definitely be the favourite with his results here the last few years. He obviously didn't get a chance to defend his title last year, but he's played three finals in a row and now he's in the semis here.
"He's a very tough player on any surface but he plays great tennis here. Psychologically I need to believe that I can win the match. That's the most important thing."
After a season dogged by injury problems in 2009, Nadal has firmly re-established himself at the top of the game, going through the clay-court season unbeaten and reclaiming the number one ranking from Roger Federer.
The 24-year-old has not looked entirely convincing this fortnight, however, needing five sets to see off both Robin Haase and Philipp Petzschner, while he trailed Robin Soderling 5-0 in the first set of their quarter-final before recovering to win in four.
u00a0"You need to serve well and you need to play great tennis (against Nadal)," said Murray. "You don't want to leave the ball in the middle of the court to his forehand, because you'll do a lot of running. You've got to serve well, try to keep a good length and play really, well."
The dry court conditions could play their part, with Nadal joking yesterday that there was "a lot of clay behind the baseline," but Murray is not worried it will push the odds further in the second seed's favour. "I definitely wouldn't describe the courts here as similar to clay. They are more like a hard court because the ball's bouncing pretty high.
