Andy Murray to play Djokovic in Miami final after Nadal withdraws

Miami Masters final

  • Venue: Crandon Park Tennis Centre, Florida
  • Date: 1 April 2012

Coverage: BBC 5 live sports extra; live text commentary on BBC Sport website

Andy Murray will attempt to win his second title this season when he plays Novak Djokovic in the final of the Miami Masters at 1800 BST on Sunday.

The Scot was due to play Rafael Nadal in the last four on Friday but the Spaniard withdrew with a knee injury.

"I take no pleasure from this but I cannot go on court and lie to everybody," said second seed Nadal.

World number one Novak Djokovic beat Juan Monaco 6-0 7-6 (7-5) to set up a 13th career meeting with Murray.

TALE OF THE TAPE

Murray Djokovic

24

Age

24

6'3''

Height

6'2''

2005

Turned pro

2003

4

Ranking

1

22

Career titles

29

0

Grand Slams

5

5

Head-to-head

7

$19,878,883

Prize money

$35,546,866

With Nadal pulling out of their last-four contest, Murray, who beat Djokovic to win the Miami title in 2009, was disappointed not to put plans he has worked on with coach Ivan Lendl to the test.

Having also received a walkover when Milos Raonic pulled out of their third-round meeting with an ankle injury, Murray will be playing only his fourth match of the tournament.

"I have been working with Ivan now for a couple of months, on certain tactics that would work against Rafa, Novak and Roger [Federer]," said the British number one.

"It would have been nice to see whether or not those things were working."

Murray has dropped only one set - against Janko Tipsarevic in the last eight - en route to the final and said he was relishing the prospect of testing himself against Djokovic.

"We have played a couple of times here and he won the first one easily in 2007 [6-1 6-0]," Murray, whose first title of the year came in Brisbane, told BBC Radio 5 live.

"Then I won the second one kind of comfortably in the final a few years ago [6-2 7-5].

"I think both of us were quite immature at the time though; now we are very experienced on the tour.

MURRAY'S 2012 SO FAR

  • Brisbane: Won beat Dolgopolov
  • Australian Open: SF lost to Djokovic
  • Dubai: F lost to Federer
  • Indian Wells: 2R lost to Garcia-Lopez
  • Miami: F v Djokovic

"It is always a good test to play against the number one in the world to see where your game is at."

Djokovic only lost eight points in the first set against Monaco but the Argentine battled back in the second.

He forced Djokovic - who served for the match at 5-4 - into a tie-break before the defending champion prevailed on his second match point.

Nadal, 25, has suffered with knee problems throughout his career, retiring from the 2010 Australian Open quarter-final against Murray with a complaint in his right joint.

He also missed more than two months of the 2009 campaign, including a defence of his Wimbledon crown.

This time it was the world number two's left knee, which had already hampered him during his quarter-final victory over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

"It looks like it's nothing really different than happened a few times in the past," Nadal added.

"Hopefully with a few days off and with the right treatment, I will be in the right conditions to start to practice on the clay."

Nadal, a six-time winner of the French Open, still plans to start his clay-court season at the Monte Carlo Masters on 16 April.