Andy Murray has reached his fifth Australian Open final after coming from one set down on two occasions to beat Milos Raonic.
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He’s given himself a shot, beating Milos Raonic 4-6, 7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-2 Friday to reach the final for the fifth time.
He had more to contend with against Raonic, who was playing in only his second Grand Slam semifinal, and aiming to be the first Canadian man to reach the final of a major.
The two have split their six meetings with Raonic winning three of their first four; Murray the last two including previous year on the Madrid clay.
The medical timeout proved to be a pivotal moment in the match, as Murray found his groove after that and completely elevated his game in the fifth set, earning a double break to go up 3-0 in the fifth set. “It was frustrating. After that I got a better read on his serve as the match went on and that was the key”.
“I’m not particularly proud of the way I’ve handled myself on the court and I don’t think that my behaviour has been impeccable, ” Murray is quoted as saying by British newspapers. “When I’m playing a match, I’m not thinking about what he was going through”, Murray said of Raonic’s plight. But that constant progress which I feel like I’ve been hitting the mark on for a long period of time – disregarding my injury – is what I look for every single day. The injury had Raonic clearly frustrated on the court as he wasn’t able to be as effective.
American Coco Vandeweghe and Horia Tecau of Romania have advanced to Sunday’s mixed doubles final at Melbourne Park with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Slovenian Andreja Klepac and Treat Huey of the Philippines.
Raonic is known as the “missile” due to his devastating serve, which thus puts him at the head of the queue when considering the game’s next generation of stars. “I don’t think that’s like myself to do, but sometimes it’s a little bit too much to keep in”, he said.
But the rangy Canadian has shown impressive versatility during the year’s first grand slam, the highlight being his aggressive serve-and-volley tactics that helped floor 2014 champion Stan Wawrinka in five sets in the fourth round.
Raonic on Murray: “As much as I look back on it, even before I went on court today, I was paying attention to what he was doing”.
Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray will play in Sunday’s (31/01/2016) Australian Open 2016 Mens Final.
Andy Murray survived an almighty scare against Milos Raonic to secure a place in his fifth Australian Open final.
Murray threatened a break twice in the early stages of the second set, but Raonic held his nerve and it seemed that a tie-break would be needed when Murray moved into a 6-5 lead.
“Andy worked extremely hard to be World No. 2 at the end of the year so that he could be seeded second”, Bjorkman said.
Murray’s left-handed sibling, along with Brazil’s Bruno Soares, will, somewhat ironically, get a Canadian in the final in veteran Daniel Nestor.
During that mammoth third set Raonic won 91 per cent of the points on his first serve and fired seven aces.
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Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal each had seasons when they won three of the four major titles, but couldn’t complete the calendar-year Grand Slam. “I should be happy about that”, Murray told reporters after spending over four hours on court. If Murray is at his best, and recent events have the effect of galvanizing him, he should prevail over the course of five sets.
