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Murray Marches to Secon Consecutive Australian Open Final
Friday, 28 January 2011 11:43
by Kelvin Goodchild
SM_MURRAY_A02011_D12_023Be aware of the underdog.

Best advice to Andy Murray to prepare him for his semi-final match tonight against the determined Spaniard, David Ferrer.

After the early rounds threw up very few surprises, the semi-finals have strayed dramatically from the expected menu, Federer and Wozniacki both going down to lower ranked opponents.

David Ferrer captured the biggest scalp of all beating his slightly crippled countryman, Rafael Nadal, on Wednesday night, ending the world number one’s dreams of being the first man to hold all four Grand Slam titles at the same time since Rod Laver in 1969.

Murray went into this match with a 2-3 win-loss record against the number seven seed, but having won the last tie between the two players. That was at the Barclays World Tour Finals in London in November last year, the result being a straight sets victory, 6-2, 6-2.

Ferrer’s three wins against his Scottish rival have all come on clay and the two have never played each other before in a Grand Slam.

The second best Spaniard on the ATP Tour was keen to prove that he was worthy of his place in the semi-final after being gifted passage through to the semi-final by an injured Nadal.

But, with Ferrer possessing no major weapons to speak of, this match was always going to be decided by the attitude, form and choices of the British player.

Alongside Djokovic, Murray has looked the most impressive player in the men’s draw so far.
Dolgopolov took a set off him in the previous round, but other than that he has been as carefree as a tourist taking a boat trip down the nearby Yarra River.

His untroubled route to the semis may have engendered a false sense of security because he came out in the first set and instead of playing his own game tried to beat Ferrer at the Spaniard’s game.

Ferrer’s metronomic style of tennis almost seemed to hypnotise Murray into playing in a SM_FERRER_A02011_D12_009similar fashion to the Spaniard.

The number seven seed won the set by keeping the intensity low, pouncing on anything short that his opponent sent back or just waiting for an unforced error from the other side of the net – Murray made an extravagant 63 in the match compared to 34 from Ferrer.

Murray’s dream like state continued well into the second set when, at 3-3, he hit a simple volley into the net for 15-15.

Time to wake up and smell the coffee otherwise this match was going to be over in quick time with Ferrer heading into his first Grand Slam final.

Murray switched on and delegated control of the rest of the match to his ‘go to’ shots, his first serve and his cross-court backhand.

Ferrer was not giving in though. He fought his way to a set point in the second set like the Warrior that he is, but Murray shut the opportunity down quickly with a thunderous first serve down the middle at 193 km/h, which took the game back to Deuce.

In the second set tie-break Murray predictably raced away and brought up six set points with an ace on the line. Ferrer saved two of them but in attempting a third floated a backhand wide and Murray had evened the match up at one set all.

The Wall (as Ferrer is known due to his ability to keep the ball in play) had been torn down and from here there was only going to be one winner.

Murray changed his shirt for the third set, sticking with the refreshing green he started the match with, and with it seemed to acquire a fresh spirit.

He took 42 minutes to wrap up the third set, 6-1, saving five break points from the Spaniard – who refused to go down without a fight - in his last service game.

Murray now had a vice like grip on the game and even though Ferrer’s resolve was not eroding, he was struggling more and more to keep pace with the resurgent Scotsman.

Ferrer was broken by Murray in the first game of the fourth set but, astonishingly, he wasn’t finished even then, scrapping his way to a break of his own to level at 2-2.

SM_MURRAY_A02011_D12_037But, it was only delaying the inevitable, Murray finishing the match with a final volley winner, raising his hands in ecstasy and acknowledging his box, which included women’s semi-final loser, Caroline Wozniacki.

Murray had been so focused during the match that he had lost count of the score at a critical
moment in the second set; 5-4 and set point against him on his serve.

‘You are probably not going to believe this but I actually thought it was 4-3,’ he said in the after match interview.

He meets Novak Djokovic in his second consecutive Australian Open final.

‘I think experience wise we are similar, he obviously won here quite a few years ago.

‘We are good friends, we practice a lot together, we trained a lot in Perth actually getting ready for here - we practiced four or five times. Then when we got here we practiced a couple of times so there won’t be any secrets with our games, but it’s going to be a brutal match I think.’

Brutal but riveting; instead of the expected Rafa/Federer road show we have the equally absorbing Djokovic/Murray.

The pair has never played each other in a Grand Slam match let alone a final so we are breaking new at the Australian Open this year.
 

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