Four-time Australian Open runner-up Andy Murray has stopped the unbeaten 2016 run of Milos Raonic, the second seed beating the big-serving Canadian 4-6 7-5 6-7(4) 6-4 6-2 in their semifinal at Rod Laver Arena on Friday night. Djokovic had won eight consecutive matches against Murray before the No. 2 seed turned things around with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 victory at the Rogers Cup finals in Montreal last summer.
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Andy Murray set up a weekend of glory for his family Down Under – then revealed he will not watch brother Jamie play in Saturday’s doubles final because it is too stressful, writes Neil McLeman in Melbourne.
Britain’s Andy Murray (TOP) plays a backhand return during his men’s singles semi-final match against Canada’s Milos Raonic on day twelve of the 2016 Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne on January 29, 2016. “It doesn’t matter what’s happened in the past really – it’s about what happens on Sunday”, he said. “It’s about what happens on Sunday”, Murray said.
That was to be Raonic’s only break of the match but it was enough to win the first set and, after Murray had pounced to even up the contest, he ramped up his 230 kilometre-per-hour serve to clinch the third on tiebreak. When Murray trailed by two sets to one it seemed that Raonic was on the verge of fulfilling the promise that has seen him earmarked as the best prospect among the next generation, but the 25-year-old Canadian appeared to suffer a groin injury early in the fourth set.
“It’s unfortunate… probably the most heartbroken I’ve felt on court, but that’s what it is”, Raonic said. “I’ll need to execute my game plan very well and not have any lapses in concentration and just play as good a match as I can”.
Who do we think will win? .
With five Australian Open victories under his belt, the world No. 1 needs one more to equal Roy Emerson’s record of six which he set nearly half a century ago in 1967.
“Let me be the first to congratulate you”, Williams said in her post-match speech. She also hasn’t dropped a set in six matches this tournament, something she’s never done in 15 previous appearances at Melbourne Park. You go throughout the match, and even before the match, through different thought processes.
Djokovic knows the dangers of being overconfident, however, as he chases his 11th overall Grand Slam title, which would put him in a tie with Bjorn Borg and Rod Laver for fifth on the all-time list. “We had them on the ropes in the second set but they really came through”. “I think that will show up through this year, but Novak certainly has a chance to pull off a Grand Slam”.
“I mean, he’s getting to the final of a grand slam”.
‘[It’s] a lot about tactics and a lot about how of course you handle your emotions of the greatness of that occasion of playing for the Grand Slam title’.
The Murray brothers are not the only Scots in finals action this weekend, with Glasgow resident Gordon Reid on course for an Australian Open double after reaching the men’s singles and doubles finals.
“So I understand the kind of desire and will to win that is present”.
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Djokovic, who has won three of the last four majors, is in inspired form at the moment.
