Andy Murray defeats Rafael Nadal to move to the Abu Dhabi final

The long-awaited return of Rafael Nadal to the tennis court was not accompanied by a win for the Spaniard yet Nadal played a very competitive match against Murray who was the better player all match long. It's no wonder the Brit won the match considering he has played a lot more tennis lately than Nadal and is in better match shape at the moment.

Despite that Nadal showcased his typical fighting spirit never backing down from Murray despite being overmatched for the better part of the match. We saw good play by Nadal early on as he was able to keep himself in the rallies. Murray was sharper overall hitting better angles and keeping the ball in play longer. Nadal committed a few cheap errors and Murray was able to jump out to a 5-2 lead.

He would close the set with 6-3. The 2nd one was another interesting one as Murray applied pressure early on Nadal. The Brit had early break points but wasn't able to convert them. He would have a couple of more but once again it was Nadal that saved it. Murray had to save a lone break point on his own serve midway through the set keeping himself in play.

Eventually, he was able to wear down Nadal towards the end of the set and use his opportunity to break him. He took a 6-5 lead before closing out the match with 7-5. He will play Andrey Rublev in the final tomorrow.