Murray marches into Australian Open semis

Melbourne, Jan 27:

Britain’s Andy Murray entered the Australian Open semi-finals for the fifth time after beating rising Australian star Nick Kyrgios 6-3, 7-6(5), 6-3 here Tuesday.

Murray would face World No.7 Tomas Berdych for a place in the final at Melbourne Park after the Czech ousted No.3 Rafael Nadal earlier in the day.

Murray has lost his past two meetings with Berdych and trailed 4-6 in career head-to-head meetings.

Murray, the two-time Grand Slam champion kept his emotions steady and won the big points to stop Kyrgios building up early momentum.

Murray broke through in the sixth game to seal the 32-minute opener before Kyrgios settled down in the second set.

The Canberra native stayed with Murray to force a tie-break and threatened to seize the initiative as three straight points saw him go up 3-2 in the breaker.

But Murray again asserted himself and came back from 5-6 down to win the tie-break and clinch the second set.

From there on, Murray didn’t look back and claimed the contest in two hours and five minutes. (IANS)