Andy Murray clinched a place in the Australian Open final for the fourth time in his career as he smashed Tomas Berdych in the semi-final in Melbourne.
Murray lost the first set in a tie-break, but never looked back thereafter as he won 6-7 6-0 6-3 7-5 – and will go on to meet either top seed Novak Djokovic or defending champion Stan Wawrinka, who play their semi-final on Friday.
The Scot broke his opponent completely in the second set with a staggering combination of untouchable serves and nerveless returning.
And from there on he never looked in danger of losing – breaking Berdych in the 11th game of the fourth set, and then serving out a love game, even finishing off with a perfect ace down the centre.
Having missed several good chances in the first set, Murray admitted that he had given himself a stern talking-to – though he did not tell on-court interviewer Jim Courier exactly what he’d said.
“I probably can’t repeat it on TV!” he chuckled.
“I was disappointed but I felt like I got better as the game went on – I got very aggressive at the start of the second set…
“I changed tactics a little bit, but I was getting more comfortable in the conditions and also with Tomas’s ball – he hits the ball very hard and at first I felt very rushed trying to deal with it.”
Berdych, who is now coached by Dani Vellverdu — a former member of Murray’s coaching team — started at a blistering pace that had the Scot hanging on by his fingernails as he scrambled all around court to save his own serve.
The Czech conceded just two points on his first four service games before Murray clawed his way back with Berdych serving for the set at 5-3 and then forced it into a tiebreak, which the seventh seed surprisingly won after saving a set point when Murray hit a forehand into the net.
