Murray Tames Kyrgios To Reach Last Four

Andy Murray is still without doubt one of the favourites when it comes to winning Grand Slams in men’s tennis and in the last few days the Brit has successfully swatted away the exuberance and energy of the games next generation.

Murray prepares for his fifth semi-final in Australia 

Murray’s victories over fast rising stars, Grigor Dimitrov and Nick Kyrgios, not only earned the British number one a place in his fifth Australian Open semi-final, it also proved that he remains ahead of the up and coming talent who are attempting to overthrow those at the top.

Not that Murray is looking over his shoulder, far from it, and at 27 his best years may still be to come. There’s no doubt he suffered, by his standards, a miniature lull after winning the Wimbledon title at the peak of his power in 2013, but that’s more than understandable after having back surgery straight after. He seems to be over that now and a rejuvenated Murray appears back on course.

His straight sets quarter final victory over home favourite Kyrgios was impressive, not least because he gave the vibrant Australian crowd little to get their teeth into, prevailing  6-3 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 in 2 hours 5 minutes.

Kyrgios was dangerous, vigorous, a 6ft 4 toreador, who at just 19 years of age was the first Australian to reach a quarter final in Melbourne since LLeyton Hewitt in 2005. He stunned Rafeal Nadal at Wimbledon last year and came back to beat Andres Seppi from two sets down in the previous round, Murray knew he wasn’t in for an easy ride.

Nevertheless Murray was on it from the off and after Kyrgios won the first two points of the match, on Murray’s serve, it then took until the middle of the third set for the Aussie to finally reach break point.

Murray made his move in the sixth game, his effective chip returns helped neutralise and break the monstrous Kyrgios serve, then Murray had the answers from the back of the court.   

But Kyrgios is naturally very quick between points and can easily build up a flowing rhythm. Murray was wise to that. His crafty slices and measured attacks not only helped slow Kyrgios down but at times even had the Australian running around like a puppet on a string.

However, as demonstrated in the last round Kyrgios is not the sort of character to lie down easily. In the second set he regrouped, approached the net more and forced a pivotal tie break.

Murray’s serve had remained untouchable, but if Kyrgios levelled at one set all the crowd would have roared behind him. Murray didn’t let them.

He won a decisive breaker by seven points to five and despite losing serve for the first time in the third set he recovered to reach Thursday’s semi-final, where he will meet seventh seed Tomas Berdych who beat Nadal in 6-2 6-0 7-6(5).

In the first Women’s semi Maria Sharapova will face Ekaterina Makarova after both won in straight sets.