Murray Comes Back to Beat Raonic and Reach Fifth Australian Open Final

For the second year in a row and the fourth time in six years, the Australian Open final will see Novak Djokovic square off against Andy Murray, after Murray came back from two sets to one down against Canada’s Milos Raonic, eventually outlasting him for a 4-6, 7-5, 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-2 victory.

Raonic, with a new found variety to his game, broke Murray in the opening game of the match, and would go on to serve out the remainder of the set 6-4.

In the second, Murray continually chipped away at Raonic’s serve with hopes of securing that break, but Raonic did well to save break points in the second and sixth games. Murray didn’t give up anything on serve, getting 80 percent of his first serves in and winning 83 percent of those points. He would finally break though on Raonic’s serve while up 6-5, securing the lone break point of the set and avoiding a tiebreaker to even the match up at one set a piece.

Both players were effective on serve in the third set with neither of them facing a break point, forcing the set into a tiebreaker. Raonic displayed some power and precision in the breaker, opening up a 5-2 lead with a forehand winner before closing it out 7-4, moving within one set of reaching the first major final of his career.

But Raonic would leave the court for a medical timeout following that third set, and the 13th-seeded Canadian would never really recover. An apparent leg injury clearly limited Raonic’s movement around the court, and Murray took full advantage. He broke Raonic for a 4-3 lead, and then fought off two break points to hold for 5-3, eventually taking the set 6-4 to force a deciding fifth.

With Raonic clearly hobbled by the injury, Murray broke in the opening game, and another break in the third game helped him open up a 4-0 advantage. The Scot never looked back, closing out the set 6-4 to reach the fifth Australian Open final of his career.

“He definitely slowed down, which was unfortunate for him,” Murray said of Raonic’s injury. “It would have been nice to play a more competitive set. Obviously I got a bit lucky with that.”

Murray will hope his luck continues when he takes on Novak Djokovic in the final for the fourth time, having lost his previous three chances against the Serb.

“A lot of things are obviously important. You can’t afford to do anything poorly—Novak’s played extremely well,” said Murray. “We’ve played a bunch of times here, and hopefully this time it will be a different result.”