Andy Murray has reached the Australian Open final and is still hoping to achieve what no British man has done in more than 70 years — win a Grand Slam singles title.
Murray beat Marin Cilic 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 last night to advance to Sunday’s championship match. He’ll take on the winner of tonight’s semi-final between three-time Australian Open winner Roger Federer and 2008 finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
If Federer wins it will mean a rematch of the 2008 US Open where the Swiss star beat Murray in straight sets. That was the 22-year-old Scot’s only trip to a Grand Slam singles final, where his loss continued a streak of no British man winning a major since 1936.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Earlier yesterday, Serena Williams and Justine Henin won their semi-finals over Chinese opponents to advance to tomorrow’s final.
Williams beat Li Na 7-6 (4), 7-6 (1) while Henin wasted little time beating Zheng Jie 6-1, 6-0.
The last British man to win at the Australian Open was Fred Perry in 1934. Perry won Wimbledon in 1936, the last British man to win there, a drought that has worn heavily on the psyche of players such as Murray, Tim Henman and others before them.
PHOTO: AFP
Murray is the first British man to reach the Australia final since John Lloyd in 1977 and the first to reach two Grand Slam finals in the Open era.
Murray used to joke several years ago that when he lost, he was Scottish, and when he won the media referred to him as British. He could make everybody happy in the United Kingdom if he breaks the drought on Sunday at Rod Laver Arena.
Leading 3-1 in the fourth set and with Cilic serving, Murray unleashed a forehand to the corner that left Cilic standing in the middle of the court on break point. He took a 5-1 lead on his next service game and closed the match in just over three hours.
Looking ahead to the final, Murray said he would need to be at the top of his game, whether he played Federer or Tsonga.
“It’s important to play solid against either of them, maintain my level and not play silly tennis,” he said.
Serena Williams got some help from her sister for her semi-final win. After Venus Williams lost in the quarter-finals to Li, ending any chance of an all-Williams semifinal, she did all she could to ensure at least one family member would be there.
“She told me how to play her and what to do,” Serena said. “She had chances yesterday and she knew how to play her. It always helps when you have someone who can help you out.”
Serena advanced to her fifth Australian Open final. Henin is playing in her first Grand Slam tournament in two years since ending a 20-month retirement.
Unfortunately for Zheng, it was the most lopsided women’s semi-final at the Australian Open since Chris Evert beat Andrea Jaeger by the same score in 1982.
Serena, the 11-time Grand Slam singles champion, and Venus, the defending champions in doubles, later beat Lisa Raymond and Rennae Stubbs 6-3, 7-6 (6) in the semi-finals. They’ll play No. 1 seeds Cara Black and Liezel Huber in today’s final.
Taiwan’s Huang Liang-chi and Japan’s Yasutaka Uchiyama were beaten 6-3, 7-6 by German pair Kevin Krawietz and Dominik Schulz yesterday in the semi-final of the boys’ doubles. The No. 4 seeds defeat by their second-seeded opponents saw Taiwan’s last representative in Melbourne eliminated.
additional reporting by staff writer, with cna
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