Murray downs Ferrer to reach Australian Open final
World No. 5 British Andy Murray moves to the Australian Open final by defeating Spanish seventh seed David Ferrer 4-6, 7-6, 6-1 and 7-6 in the second men’s singles semifinals played on Rod Laver Arena on.
Murray had reached the semifinals by defeating Alexander Dolgopolov in a tiring duel. In the first set against Ferrer, the Spaniard cruised to win the first game by shooting a cross-court forehand winner. In the next game, Murray fought back and levelled
briefly, as Ferrer again took the lead in the next game. This continued till Murray levelled 3-3 with his awe-inspiring skills. Later, Murray broke the serve and won the next game. Ferrer unleashes himself and won the next three points with his impressive
forehand smashes.
Murray started the second set with great passion and won the first game with breaking the serve. Ferrer counter-attacked in the next game by winning from break points just like Murray. Ferrer also won the very next game by holding his serve, making the score
2-1. Murray did catch him but the Spaniard always took the lead and till the score reached 5-5. It was then 6-6 with great performance by the both. The game went on to the tiebreaker where Murray, clearly the better one, won it and won the set.
In the third set, Murray was on fire and with an awesome display of skills and agility, he won the whole set, losing only 1 game and taking the score 6-1. He held all his serves and almost lost the second game after 5-1 score line, but made most of the Spaniard’s
tiredness to won the set.
The final set was very physical, with Murray taking the lead and winning first 2 games. Later, Ferrer got back in the game and with some help from Murray errors and with his own abilities, won 3 consecutive games. Murray levelled the score and both players
gave their all because it was now or never and took the set to the tiebreaker. The Spaniard was really furious over a doubtful decision by the chair umpire, which helped him in his game play. However, Murray clearly outclassed him in the tiebreaker and eventually
won the set 7-6.
"He [David Ferrer] is an unbelievable athlete, competitive, and he worked so hard. Obviously I managed to get through in the end but it was hard work," Murray told reporters in Melbourne after the game on Friday. "There is a lot of running tonight, pretty
physical match."
The British also admitted that he has lost track on the score in the second set for the first time in such a big match.
“I have been a bit nervous. And I actually thought it was 4-3 [when 5-4 down in the second set]. It happens occasionally [that you lose track of the score] and it probably helped me this time. I was wrapped up, not thinking too much," he said.
Murray, entering a Grand Slam final for third time, will face No. 3 Serbian Novak Djokovic on Sunday. Djokovic, winner of the 2008 Australian Open, defeated champion Roger Federer in the Thursday's semifinals.