Written by Thomas Rooney | 03 June 2011

Andy Murray believes he will beat Rafael Nadal to reach a maiden French Open final.

The Scot has struggled for form throughout 2011 since suffering defeat in the Australian Open final, but has produced his best ever effort at Roland Garros in reaching the final four.

But in facing world number one Nadal,  sports betting pundits note how Murray comes up against a player who has suffered just one defeat in 44 outings at the clay court major.

Murray admitted that he will have to be at his absolute best to beat the Spaniard, but insisted he is capable of upsetting the odds despite carrying an ankle injury.

"I feel I can do it.  It's just making sure that, come Friday, I play my best tennis,” said the number four seed.

“I have to play a very consistent match and I have to be mentally strong. Tactically, I'm going to have to be very good."

Nadal has defeated Murray on 10 of their 14 meetings in the past, including all three of their contests that have came on clay.

And the British number one admitted that defeating Nadal on his favoured surface is a huge task.

"It's one of the best challenges in tennis," he added.

"Obviously his record here is, well, it's incredible. Definitely I look forward to it. I understand obviously it's going to be an incredibly difficult match for me."

The other semi-final features the second and third seeds for the tournament, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer.

If Australian Open champion Djokovic defeats the Swiss, he will head into the final as the new world number one, whilst Federer has a 17^th Grand Slam title in his sights.

Serbian Djokovic may have a slight advantage heading into the clash, as he made it through the last eight without picking up his racket due to the withdrawal of injured Fabio Fognini.

And on the back of 43 consecutive victories since losing to Federer in London’s ATP World Tour Finals last November, Djokovic looks as dominant as Nadal has on the European clay surfaces.

Federer hinted to those placing sports bets that the streak Djokovic is on may have some part to play in the match.

"Maybe the streak is less at stake in some ways because it's more of a big match against me, so it's easier to focus just on playing me instead of the whole situation," he said.

"I think the number one situation is the big one right now for him and not so much the streak, but it all goes hand in hand. It's going to be an interesting day."

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