By Chris Oddo | Friday, January 29, 2016
Andy Murray battled past Milos Raonic and into his fifth Australian Open final.
Photo Source: Corleve
With his back against the wall Andy Murray dug into the trenches and kept up the chase against hard-serving Milos Raonic on Friday night in Melbourne. Eventually Murray caught the big Canadian, and he never looked back.
Video: Frustrated Raonic Takes it out on his Racquet
Murray broke open a tense, back-and-forth thriller late in the fourth set and reeled off nine of the final 12 games to leave a hobbled Raonic in the dust. The Scot’s 4-6, 7-5, 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-2 victory places him in his fifth career Aussie Open final and his 9th Grand Slam final all-time.
It was by no means a walk in the park. Raonic, who matched his career-best Grand Slam result in Melbourne, was menacing on serve from the onset, and equally impressive off the ground. He was also opportunistic, at least in the early going. Raonic took advantage of a slip by Murray in the first game of the match and gunned his way out of a triple-break down scenario in the next game to consolidate, setting the tone for the first three sets of the match. With Murray yet to dial in his return game, Raonic served his way through the rest of the set without facing another break point.
In the second set Murray squandered a break point in the second game and the sixth game but he kept punching and eventually broke through in the final game of the set when he pummeled a forehand crosscourt winner to steal the set.
It shifted the momentum in Murray’s favor, but that momentum wasn’t enough to gain Murray any inroads against the Raonic serve.
The 25-year-old, clad quirkily in his custom New Balance arm sleeve and much-talked-about mouth guard, held sway in set three, dropping just two points on serve. He played a perfect tiebreaker to regain the lead, sealing the set when Murray netted a backhand on the Canadian’s first set point.
“It was tough because I played well in that set, but in the tiebreak he didn’t miss one first serve,” Murray said. “Obviously he has one of the best serves in tennis so it was frustrating, when you don’t have much say in the points.”
Things shifted in Murray’s favor early in the fourth when Raonic left to have an injury to his upper right leg treated after three games. Though Raonic wouldn’t be visibly hindered in the fourth set, he did not have the same jump as a fired-up Murray started to take over the match emotionally and physically.
Though he had won just five points in his previous nine return games, Murray’s diligence paid off in the seventh game of the set as he broke at love and celebrated vigorously, sending a message to the Canadian that the fun was just beginning.
Raonic saw a break point to level at five-all go begging moments later and Murray closed out the set shortly thereafter.
A double-fault by Raonic on break point in the first game of set five seemed to be the tipping point for the Canadian. He uncharacteristically smashed his racquet and tossed it against his chair, before turning to jaw at his coaching box before play resumed.
“He definitely slowed down in that fifth set for sure, which was unfortunate for him,” Murray said. “The fourth set I thought he was still moving good until the end.”
Raonic dropped the next three games and though he battled furiously to avoid an embarrassing blanking in set five, he never drew closer.
Murray improves to 19-7 in five-setters and ups his career head-to-head against Raonic to 2-0 at the majors and 4-3 overall.
Murray will not have much time to celebrate. He’ll need to regroup and prepare to face world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in Saturday night’s final. The Serb defeated Murray in last year’s Australian Open final in four sets, winning 12 of the final fifteen games to claim his fifth Australian Open title and leave Murray winless in four trips to the title round.
Murray, who has dropped ten of eleven against Djokovic since defeating him in the 2013 Wimbledon final, knows he’ll have to be in pitch-perfect form to pull the upset.
“I need to execute my gameplan very well, not have any lapses in concentration, and just play as good of a match as I can,” Murray said. “Novak has played extremely well, his last couple of matches in particular, he obviously loves playing on this court. We’ve played a bunch of times here. Hopefully this time it can be a different result.”