Australian Open semi-finals: Heartbreak for Murray as Djokovic reaches second consecutive Australian Open final

Andy Murray has suffered heartbreak in the Australian Open semi-final after losing a five-set thriller to reigning champion and world number one Novak Djokovic in Melbounre. The Brit, who has come so close on so many occasions, had battled superbly to keep the match alive, but again the brilliance of those above him have stopped him in his tracks in his bid for a first Grand Slam title.

Things started badly for Murray after Djokovic took the first set, breaking in the fourth and seventh games to give him an unassailable 6-3 victory. But Murray, in true British style, never gave up but kept piling waves upon waves of pressure on Djokovic, breaking the Serb in his last three service  games to take the second set by the same score line.

And after Murray had taken the third set tie-break to give himself the advantage, it had seemed Britain’s brightest tennis prospect was ready to take the step up from being the Nearly Man to being Grand Slam champion. But, just like early in his career when the likes of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal stood in his way, the new undisputed king of tennis put the brakes on any premature dreams of Murray holding the title come Sunday.

Djokovic had looked a million miles away from the dominant player that had easily beat all those before him en-route to the semi-finals, and Murray had looked on top. But there’s a reason why Djokovic is world number one and a serious contender to challenge Roger Federer’s record of 16 Grand Slams. The 24-year-old broke Murray on his opening two services to take a 4-0 lead in the fourth set, before breaking the Brit again in the seventh game to level the tie at two sets all going into the fifth and deciding set.

And after seemingly throwing away that fourth set, Murray could only do what he knows best, using every bit of courage in his body to desperately fight to get himself back into the game. And, with Murray serving to stay in the game with the score 5-3 in favour of Djokovic he did just that, winning the next two games to level the scores at 5-5.

However, it was just all too much for the number four seed, who had three break points to break Djokovic, which would have left him to serve for the game – but Djokovic just wouldn’t slip up and held his service to pile more pressure on Murray, who failed to hold his serve allowing Djokovic to progress through to Sunday’s final.

It was a gutsy and courageous performance from Murray, but the harsh truth is he just isn’t as good as the three who sit above him in the world rankings, and despite all the support Murray gets and all the hard work he puts in, he just cannot get past Federer, Nadal and Djokovic when it really counts.

Dean Mears

Results

[1] N Djokovic (SRB) d [4] A Murray (GBR) 6-3 3-6 6-7(5) 6-1 7-5