Murray, Raonic Set Up Semifinal Showdown in Melbourne
In a battle of two of the best players from the baseline, second-seed Andy Murray moved past eighth-seed David Ferrer 6-3. 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-3 on Wednesday to advance to the Australian Open semifinals.
Ferrer entered this quarterfinal as the only player who hadn’t dropped a set, but that ended immediately against Murray. The Spaniard was up 40-0 on serve in the fourth game, but dropped five straight points to give Murray the break, and the four-time finalist would go on to serve out the set.
In the second set, Ferrer raced out to a 3-0 lead, only to see his break advantage wash away in the seventh game. With the set back on serve, it would head into a tiebreaker, but Ferrer displayed toughness to hold off Murray in the breaker and even the match at one set a piece.
Murray would break for a 3-1 lead in the third set before rain delayed the match for a bit. But the rain wouldn’t halt Murray, as he consolidated that break with a hold for a 4-1 lead once the match resumed, and went on to take the third set 6-2.
Despite dropping one of his service games in the fourth set, Murray would convert on both of his break point chances to close out Ferrer and move into the semifinals.
“It was a pretty brutal match,” Murray said of the three hour and 20 minute contest. “The start of the match wasn’t so good—a lot of unforced errors. But in the middle of the second set and the third set we both started to play long points. It was pretty physical but I held up pretty good I think.”
As Murray said, this wasn’t the cleanest match as both players had a negative winner to unforced error ratio. Despite hitting more unforced errors than Ferrer, Murray hit 49 winners to Ferrer’s 23 and converted on six break points to hold off the Spaniard.
Despite the high errors, Murray was pleased with his performance.
“When the roof closed, I was obviously up a break in the third and was feeling good,” said Murray. “That first game after the delay was very important. I saved a couple of break points, but then actually played a good game. So it was nice to get through that game. Then I felt like started to play better as the match went on. I think today was probably the best match I played, especially in the second and third set.”
Murray’s semifinal opponent will be 13th seeded Canadian Milos Raonic, who remained unbeaten in 2016 with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over 23rd seeded Frenchman Gael Monfils on Wednesday.
Raonic secured a break for a 3-1 lead in the opening set and went on to serve out the opening set. Despite dropping serve in the second set as Monfils evened the match up at one set a piece, Raonic would notch one break point in each of the final two sets, while saving the only break point he faced in those two sets, to move past Monfils and into the second Grand Slam semifinal of his career.
“I felt good, especially that I took care of the things I need to take care of. I was dictating most of the time. I was hitting my shots well. I was quite efficient off the baseline. When I had the chance, I came forward and closed shots off there,” said Raonic. “Maybe I was a little bit passive in the second set, but in the third I sort of turned that around for the better. Could have been a little bit maybe more forthcoming in the fourth as well, but I have to be happy with the way I dealt with things, how I played, and how I backed up the performance from two days ago.”
Raonic and Murray have split the six previous meetings between the two, and the seventh matchup will be for a spot in the Australian Open final. The winner of that match will face off against the winner of Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer.
