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MELBOURNE. — Andy Murray has reached the Australian Open tennis final for the fourth time, giving him one more chance to end his winless streak at Melbourne Park.
The sixth-seeded Murray beat No. 7 Tomas Berdych 6-7 (6), 6-0, 6-3, 7-5 in a semi-final littered with flashes of anger yesterday, capping off a day when Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova set up a women’s final featuring the two top ranked players — a first in 11 years at Melbourne Park.
Murray has lost three finals at Melbourne Park — to Roger Federer in 2010 and Novak Djokovic in ‘11 and ‘13. He’ll get a chance to end that streak on Sunday, against either Djokovic or defending champion Stan Wawrinka.
Since those losses, he has won the US Open and Wimbledon titles to end a long drought for British men in the majors.
Top-ranked Serena Williams has won all five Australian Open finals she has contested, her last coming in 2010. After holding on to win the tough first set against 19-year-old Madison Keys, the 18-time Grand Slam champion dominated the second set in a 7-6 (5), 6-2 victory.
Sharapova won the 2008 title, but was comprehensively outplayed in her two other trips to the final — by Williams in 2007 and by Victoria Azarenka in 2012.
Williams, who has struggled with a cold for a week, said she’d benefit from a tough workout in the all-American semifinal against Keys, who pounded her with heavy groundstrokes and a big serve for the first set.
“She pushed me really hard the first set . . . and I had to really dig deep mentally to get through that,” Williams said.
“It was a little frustrating. I had like nine or 10 match points and couldn’t close it out.
“That doesn’t happen so much. She played like she didn’t have anything to lose.” — AFP.
Online Reporter