. . . Rafa!

Rafael Nadal beat Andy Murray in the second semifinal of the day. He held off the Scotsmen 6-2 7-6(4). Nadal struck first in the second game of the match, but Murray broke back. The Spaniard then struck again. This time he held for 4-1. He cruised to take the first set easily 6-2.

In the second set, Nadal struck first in game four and jumped out to a 5-2 lead before you knew it. Serving for the match, Nadal was broken by Murray to stay in the match. Murray then won another two games to level the set at 5-5. Murray continued to hold on and sent the set to a tiebreak where the Spaniard held off the Scotsman to take the match.

Nadal will now play Novak Djokovic in the final. Nadal leads their matchup 11-4. Djokovic has never beaten Nadal on clay. There is always a first time for everything, but I doubt it will be tomorrow.

Djokovic win and Murray’s loss today allows Murray to chip away another 50 points against the Serb's number-three ranking. If the Serb wins tomorrow, he will buy him some more time to hold onto his position.

Finally, I would like to discuss my current pet peeve in men’s tennis that really has nothing to do with the players. I usually turn the sound off because most of the sportscasters are terrible. American sportscasters are the worst. Actually, Chris Evert is really good, but I guess she has better things to do.

Usually, the Brits and Aussies are mildly tolerable except when it comes to Andy Murray, who is probably the most oversold player that I have ever seen on the men’s side. They had to calm the ridiculousness down when they were overhyping Murray and making ridiculous proclamations at the Australian Open. He lost in the quarterfinals to Fernando Verdasco and then they finally toned it down. Now Murray has won some titles and has really improved on clay, so their ridiculousness went into overdrive today.

We were treated to British sportscasters, Jason Goodall and some other guy, who were completely delusional about reality and making excuses for the impending Murray loss, from his blister to the ball falling out of his pocket (clue, he should take the ball out his pocket, which he did). They kept going on about Murray’s “successes” against Nadal. For the record, Nadal is 6-2 against Murray before the match. A twenty-five percent winning percentage is not success. Murray is a good player and is improving, but Nadal is the best player right now so let him have his time in the sun.

They finally shut up and came back to reality after Nadal went up 4-1 in the first set. While Murray was making his second-set run, they then tried to act like it was the 2008 Wimbledon final. He is the second best player on tour this year, and he SHOULD not be blown off the court. He also SHOULD be trying to take a set from Nadal. There were other gems, but you probably get the point.

I actually like Andy Murray as a player, but this tomFOOLery just turns me off. He would probably have more fans if the Anglo sportscasters would tone it down. Moral to the story, turn off the sound during Andy Murray matches.

(Image: AP/Claude Paris)