Britain’s Andy Murray ended the run of home favorite Nick Kyrgios with a brilliant display to reach the Australian Open semi-finals. Murray, 27, outsmarted the 19-year-old to win 6-3 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 and set up a clash with Tomas Berdych on Thursday. Kyrgios threatened a comeback in the second set tie-break but two superb lobs helped the Scot to a crucial lead. After a challenging year on and off the court in 2014, Andy Murray has returned to his creative best in the first major of this season – and looks better by the match.
A furious Kyrgios risked a point penalty when he smashed his racquet, having earlier been warned for an audible obscenity, but at least escaped that punishment as he faced the prospect of recovering from two sets down for the second time in three days.
It took nearly two hours for Kyrgios to earn a break point but he converted his second when a distracted Murray netted a backhand, and the crowd came to life. Murray needed to snuff out the danger quickly and he did just that, thanks in part to a poor line call at 30-0 down which he capitalised on with two thumping cross-court forehand winners. It left the British number one serving for the match, and there were no alarms this time as he sealed it with a smooth forehand winner down the line.
“For me tonight it was a tricky one to judge, to say how well I played, because I found the conditions difficult. So I tried to use the conditions to my advantage and played a slightly different style than what I had been in the other matches,” said Murray.
“I would say the match against Dimitrov (in the fourth round) was a very high level. It was a clean match. Both of us were striking the ball well. And I made improvements with each of the matches. “But then tonight I just tried to play the best with what the conditions were allowing you to do, and I think I did that quite well.”
“I didn’t go into it obviously thinking like that,” said Murray about facing the home favourite. “I was just trying to win against Nick, which was tough because he has an exceptional serve and makes it very difficult for you when he’s serving. “And it was very tricky conditions as well, so I was quite happy with the way I handled everything tonight.”
“It was a really good experience,” said Kyrgios, who was aiming to become the first Australian man to reach a Grand Slam semi-final since Lleyton Hewitt in 2005.
“That was my first Aussie Open Grand Slam match playing on Rod Laver, so that was really cool. But he was way too good for me tonight. “I thought he served really well. A lot of variety. I thought if I could get that second set it’s a totally different match, but he won the second set and he was too good.”
Andy Murray is one win away from reaching his fourth Australian Open final but to get there he has to negotiate not only Tomas Berdych in their semi-final on Thursday but the Czech’s new coach, Dani Vallverdu, who, until two months ago, had been Murray’s constant companion and the rock in his back-up staff.
Andy Murray vs Nick Kyrgios, 27/01/2015, 08:30 GMT, Match Center
Tomas Berdych vs Andy Murray, 29/01/2015, 00:00 GMT Head to Head Matches
Australian Open: Murray in semi-finals after beating home boy Nick Kyrgios
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