Djokovic has already beaten Murray in three Australian Open finals and the world number one will get the advantage of an extra day’s rest after he knocked out Roger Federer in four sets in Thursday’s semi-final.
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Let’s check out how the hard-fought match played out at Rod Laver Arena.
Murray has had his mind elsewhere for much of the Australian Open but will need to bring laser-sharp focus into Friday’s semi-final against the red-hot Raonic.
Milos Raonic has won a third-set tiebreaker 7-6 (4) and leads by two sets to one in his Australian Open semifinal against Andy Murray.
Andy Murray entered the Australian Open expecting to become a champion before becoming a dad. Murray said before arriving in Australia that he’d leave immediately if needed at home.
Murray – a two-time major victor – will now square-off against defending champion Novak Djokovic on Sunday in a repeat of last year’s decider at Melbourne Park.
Seven of Murray’s previous eight winning semi-finals were won in four sets. Djokovic is 5-0.
Murray said it was hard to recover from losing the third-set tiebreak. “You can’t take that away from me”. “So I have to be proud of that achievement. What matters is what happens Sunday”. “Hopefully this time it can be a different result”.
Neither Raonic nor Murray wasted any time in the third set.
So far, despite the fact that she is due next month, Kim Sears has been successfully hiding her baby bump again at public events. While his father-in-law was being treated in the hospital, Murray at times thought his departure from Australia may have been earlier than expected.
Murray and Djokovic also met at the finals here in 2011 and 2013, with the latter victorious each time. Murray broke the Canadian for the second time in the match in the seventh game, with Raonic wincing in pain.
Murray finished off his ailing opponent with a sublime crosscourt backhand volley to bring up a match point, which he converted with a handsome forehand victor. I couldn’t get up to serve and I couldn’t change direction. “I guess that was just the whole frustration of everything getting out”.
But ever more the praise to Murray, who triumphed in a battle of wills, endurance and serves.
Federal officials don’t know how many migrant children they’ve sent to live with convicted criminals across the US over the last three years, at a time the government sought to speed young Central… Raonic did not lay down for the Scot, fighting back to reach break point in the follow game, but Murray saved it with some strong net play. “Regardless of what situation I was in, I was going to play and try to do whatever I could”.
On Saturday, Eurosport 1 is broadcasting the women’s singles final between Serena Williams and Kerber from 8 a.m. But the former US Open and Wimbledon champ rallied and gave a virtuoso performance to confirm his place in a ninth grand slam final.
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Vandeweghe and Tecau will play either Sania Mirza of India and Ivan Dodig of Croatia or Russian Elena Vesnina and Bruno Soares of Brazil, who play their semifinal later Friday.
