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By Chris Oddo | Thursday, January 29, 2015

 
Andy Murray 2015 australian open

After a bit of bickering, Andy Murray pulled his game together nicely to race past Tomas Berdych and into his fourth career Australian Open final.

Photo Source: Corleve

Andy Murray and Tomas Berdych engaged in a spirited tussle that featured a bit of back-and-forth bickering, some strangeness and a lot of ball bashing on Thursday night in Melbourne, and by the end of the three hour and 26 minute 6-7(6), 6-0, 6-3, 7-5 victory, Murray had indelibly left his mark as a title contender.

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In the final Murray—against either Novak Djokovic or Stan Wawrinka—will bid to become the first player to ever triumph at the Australian Open after dropping the final on his first three opportunities. Murray moves into a tie for second on the all-time Australian Open final list with four. He’s tied with Andre Agassi, Novak Djokovic, Ivan lendl and Mats Wilander.

“Very happy with the way that I played the match," Murray said. "And, yeah, to be in the final four times here, I mean, because I'm surrounded by guys like Roger, Novak and Rafa, doesn't look like much, but that doesn't happen that often. So I'm very proud of that.”

Murray’s night was made difficult by the blistering ball-striking of Berdych in the early going, but that didn’t keep the Scot from having three set points in the opener.

But Berdych, with some of his most decisive play on the evening, would take the final three points of the tiebreaker to snake the set. Already smarting, Murray took offense to some words from Berdych during the changeover, and he pleaded for a bit with umpire Pascal Maria before taking the court with a vengeance in set two. Whether it was a bit of gamesmanship from Murray to get into the head of Berdych, we'll never know. What we do know is that it was an elevated Murray from that point on, and a slightly diluted Berdych.

Berdych says his words weren’t intended for Murray to hear. “I have to be worried about every word that I'm going to say?” he said. “I mean, I just pumped myself up for winning a first set and that's it, then sit on the chair. I'm not really looking left or right what's going on. I just keep focusing myself and that's it. Maybe next time I should stay even more calm and that's it. But, no, I mean, I was just doing my stuff and that's it.”

"I don't know what he said,” Murray told reporters after the match, “but he said something literally as we were walking right past each other change of ends. I don't know exactly what he said. I just told the umpire that he said something to me and that was it.”

There had also been hearty discussion about the quality of the balls during the opener, which might have led to Murray’s testiness and frustration with Berdych.

Whatever was irking Murray, he used it to ramp up his game for the remainder of the match.

Murray would bagel Berdych in the second set, and cruise in the third set behind the strength of a break in the sixth game.

Though Berdych stayed in step for much of the way in the fourth set, it was Murray who once again broke through in the 11th game as a Berdych backhand sailed long.

Murray, who out-aced Berdych 15-5, did not surrender a single break point in the final three sets. He improves his career record against Berdych to 5-6, including 2-1 at the majors.

After the match, Murray was quick to credit his coach Amelie Mauresmo, who has been criticized unfairly at times for Murray’s somewhat disappointing 2014 campaign. “I got asked all the time about my ex-coach [Dani Vallverdu] working with Tomas and no one was interested in anything I was doing with Amelie or the way I was playing or anything,” he said. “After spending the off-season with Amelie and working on a bunch of things, having a sustained sort of period together, I did a great training block. I worked extremely hard physically in the off-season … Yeah, I worked well to give myself the opportunity to play like this. The way that I feel today compared with how I felt after losing in four sets last year, I could barely move at the end of the match because I was so sore and stiff. I felt strong at the end today.”

Murray also took questions about his girlfriend’s fiery passion, which she displayed for all the world to see during the match (see vine below):


“When there's a lot of tension surrounding something, which you created, then it's completely normal that, yeah, the whole first set everyone was tight,” Murray said. “My physical trainer, physio, I'm sure for Dani it was uncomfortable. Even Tomas, who very rarely says anything on the court, there was tension there for him, as well. Yeah, in the heat of the moment you can say stuff that you regret. And, yeah, that's it.”

 

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