Murray can check out the FR2DAY Whats On guide for Saturday night parties and restaurants as his first semi-final on clay ends in triumph for Rafael Nadal after a thrilling match which saw a spectacular nail-biting finale that ensured him a Sunday morning lie-in Monte-Carlo.

The British No 1 and world No 4 played valiantly after earlier saying he was looking forward to meeting Nadal on clay and learning from a top clay player.

Nadal - who hasn't lost a game on clay since May last year - took the first two games effortlessly, breaking Murray's serve in a game that saw the Scot 30 -0 up but Murray came back to take the third game with style. The next two games went to Nadal as he took charge of the first set but a claw back from Murray to bring it to 2-4 kept the set breathing and the audience rapt. With Nadal taking the set 6-2, he set the scene for victory.

An ace from Murray in set 2 must have felt good but with Nadal 2-4 up in the second set, Murray was fighting to hold his service games. Going to 3-5, Nadal was serving for the match but Murray broke back to 4-5 in an extraordinary game, showing that the fight wasn't over yet. Murray's battle continued, taking it to 6-6 and a tie-break with some amazingly deft forehand action. In the end, Nadal took it on second match point with a 7-4 tie-break, making a final score of 2-6, 6-7 to the world No 1.

Murray's Friday was a triumph. First he beat Italy's Fabio Fognini in a rain-affected match which saw him win 7-6 (13-11) 6-4, sealing his place in the final eight despite a break for the bad weather. Then he smashed Russian Nikolay Davydenko with an impressive 7-6, (7-1) 6-4 win Friday evening to secure his semi-final clash with the world No 1.

His wins came despite developing painful blisters on his hands from using new racquets for the clay court season but he confirmed it was nothing serious and it certainly wasn't enough to put him off.

Friday saw Rafael Nadal beat Nicolas Lapentti and Ivan Ljubicic to make an impressive semi-final entrance and emerge the victor.

Despite his tremendous form of the last week, only the seriously patriotic felt that the 21-year-old clay debutant ever had a hope of beating Nadal. The Spaniard will play Serbian Novak Djokovic in tomorrow's final after the world No 3 beat 13th seed Stanislas Wawrinka 4-6, 6-1, 6-3.

So it's early to bed for Novak and Rafael but maybe they should check out Susana Iwase Hanson's recent review of Le Louis XV  for after tomorrow's final. We are sure those two will not have a problem getting a table at short notice.