admin
The Australian Open title has proved devilishly elusive for Andy Murray but he will get a fifth shot at claiming one after a gruelling battle to defeat Milos Raonic.
Murray, refusing to go quietly and, taking advantage of the Canadian’s deteriorating physical state, was made to fight hard in the semi-final before coming through 4-6, 7-5, 6-7, 6-4, 6-2 just over four hours.
He now meets Novak Djokovic for the fourth time in a final here, and will somehow have to turn round a record that has seen him lose 10 of their last eleven encounters. Brother Jamie plays the doubles final tonight.
Bar a difficult fourth round against Gilles Simon the singles world No 1 has been in irresistible form and had the pleasure of sitting back, relaxing and watching Murray toil.
It was comfortable enough in the end, but with the finish close to midnight Murray has to recover from this huge tussle against the Canadian. Underpinned by his huge serve, was good value for his two sets to one lead before physical problems set in, although he was never totally incapacitated.
Men’s tennis has waited a long time for a new name to conjure with around the very top of the game, and might just have found one in Raonic.
The big Canadian, already the conqueror of Stan Wawrinka, was producing a further career-best performance and was thwarted by an apparent injury to his lower back on the right side that developed after the third set. Staying healthy has been a problem all his career.
On a cool night in Melbourne Raonic walked out for his second Grand Slam semi-final looking as well-groomed as ever while Murray seemed like he had just risen from his bed.
Murray has recently stamped out his habit of starting slowly, or so it appeared until now. In this match he played a terrible first game, including a double fault, to be broken to love. Three break points in the next game went begging and that settled the Canadian, who in the sixth game banged down a service winner at 145 miles per hour. The Canadian was also assured in the rallies — while being something of a lumpy mover he is definitely more than just a power merchant.
As often happens, Murray began to read his opponent’s serve better in the second set, but he could not convert a break point in the second game or the sixth game. The latter was a missed cross court backhand into the net — the kind of shot that is his bread and butter.
He was constantly gnawing away at the Raonic serve and adding to the pressure, which finally told at 6-5. Murray got to deuce and then took advantage of two relatively weak serves. On the second one he drilled it back at the advancing Raonic, whose backhand volley thumped into the net.
Both players dominated on serve until the latter part of the third set, when Murray began to slip and needed to save a break point at 5-5, which he did when Raonic netted off a backhand, his less reliable side. — DailyMail.
derick.khumalo