ATP ROGERS CUP BETTING MURRAY VS. NADAL

The Rogers Cup has delivered the hoped for semi-final line-up as the world’s top four players all moved into the final four after an exciting quarterfinal round.
Murray was the first to book his spot with a convincing 6-2, 6-2 win over David Nalbandian. Rafael Nadal followed with a hard-fought, three-set win over Kohlschreiber to book his place opposite Murray.
In the late session, Federer advanced over an inspired Tomas Berdych in three sets while Djokovic moved into the last spot with a straightforward victory over Chardy.
Murray takes on Nadal in the first semi-final of the day. The Brit No.1 is the defending champion and in order to reach the final, he must upend the world’s best player right now.
Nadal is the hot favourite to win outright at 4/7 with William Hill. Nadal has the winning record over Murray, which stands at 8-3 lifetime.
Nadal’s form on the season is a huge source of confidence for his backers. The Spaniard is an incredible 34-1 since the spring, which includes winning five of his last six tournaments.
Murray has three wins over Nadal; crucially, all three are hard court wins – US Open, Rotterdam and Australian Open.
In 2010, Murray and Nadal are level 1-1 and some would have this mark the more representative mark in their head-to-head series.
Certainly, given Murray’s obvious strengths on hard courts and his competitive mark on the season against the world No.1, he is a tempting bet for the upset at a mere 5/4 price.
The only charge against Murray is his seeming lack of confidence in high-stake matches this season. Murray unravelled against Federer in the Aussie Open final and as recently as Los Angeles, he fell to Querrey in the final.
Other losses on the season only add to this charge – those to Tipsarevic, Kohlschreiber, Fish, Soderling and Ferrer were rather uncharacteristic and disappointing.
 Nadal has the most recent win over Murray at Wimbledon. Nadal beat Murray convincingly 6-4, 7-6(6), 6-4.  
There is no doubt that Murray can beat Nadal, but the question is whether he will do so today. So far, the requisite confidence to suggest such a feat is on the horizon has been absent. Therefore, erring on the side reason, and form, Nadal looks like the hot pick.