TENNIS AO2015 – Andy Murray won the eagerly awaited quarter final against young Australian rising star Nick Kyrgios in three sets with 6-3 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 on a cold and breezy evening in a football-like atmosphere in the Rod Laver Arena to reach his fifth Australian Open semifinal and his 15th career Grand Slam semifinal. Murray dropped just 21 points on serve and faced the first break point only in the seventh game of the third set at 4-2 immediately after breaking for the second time in the match. Murray set up a semifinal against Tomas Berdych who beat Rafael Nadal 6-2 6-0 7-6 in straight sets. Diego Sampaolo
AO2015: Interviews, Results, Order of Play, Draws
The two stars met for the second time in their careers. In their only previous match Murray won in straight sets in the Toronto Master 1000 last summer. Kyrgios played his second Grand Slam quarter final after Wimbledon where he lost to Milos Raonic after his famous fourth-round win over Rafa Nadal. The young Aussie reached the quarter final stage in the home tournament after his epic five-set win against Italian Andreas Seppi after coming back from two sets down.
There were a lot of expectations for Kyrgios who has become the first teenager to reach two Grand Slam quarter finals after Roger Federer. The Australian player grabbed the headlines on all Australian newspapers after his win against Andreas Seppi. Kyrgios has become the first Aussie player to reach the quarter final in the home Slam since Lleyton Hewitt in 2005 when he eventually lost the final against Marat Safin.
Murray, three-time finalist at Melbourne Park in his career, was the favourite after winning his last 10 matches against home players in Grand Slam tournaments and has never lost to a player ranked as low as World Number 53 Nick Kyrgios The lowest player to defeat Murray at the Australian Open was Juan Ignacio Cela in 2006 when the Scotsman made his debut in his tournament
Murray’s experience on the big stage proved to be decisive against the younger home star. The Scotsman was playing his 21st Grand Slam quarter final and his sixth consecutive Round of 8 match at Melbourne Park. In the previous matches the Dunblane star showed good form dropping just a set in the tie-break against Grigor Dimitrov.
The first five games of the first set were dominated by serve (four aces for Murray and 3 aces for Kyrgios). Murray broke in the sixth game of the first set as Kyrgios hit a couple of forehand into the net. Kyrgios saved a break point with an ace but dropped his serve at deuce. Murray held serve for 5-2. Kyrgios saved two set points in the 8th game before winning it with his forehand but Murray sealed the first set in the next game with 6-3 after 32 minutes.
In the tie-break of the second set both players Murray got the mini-break on the first point and backed it up with a big serve. Kyrgios got the mini-break back with a volley but Murray clinched four of the next five points. Kyrgios faced a second serve at 5-5 but he could not make a return. When Kyrgios was serving at 5-6 on Murray’s set point, the Scotsman hit a lob inside the line to win the breaker 7-5 to go up 2-0. Kyrgios rallied from 0-2 down in the previous match against Seppi but this time Murray was too strong.
Murray hit another lob en route to clinching the break for 4-2 in the sixth game of the third set. Kyrgios earned his first break point of the match in the seventh game of the third set and converted it for the break-back when Murray hit a backhand drop-shot into the net for 3-4 keeping the hopes of the Aussie Fanatics alive. The dream was short-lived as Murray hit two cross-court forehand winners to come back from 0-30 and broke serve again in the eighth game for 5-3. He served for the match and sealed the win with a forehand winner down the line on the first match point in just over two hours.
Murray hit 48 winners to 28 unforced errors and converted on three of his nine break point chances. Kyrgios produced 36 winners and 38 unforced errors and converted just one of his two break point opportunities.
Murray got through to his fifth Australian Open semifinal. He achieved three wins.
“It was a tricky match because he has an exceptional serve and makes it very difficult for you when he Is serving. I knew what he is capable of and I didn’t underestimate him. Nick is a huge hitter, so I tried to keep the ball out of his reach. I played a slightly different style tonight and thankfully it worked. The conditions were very tricky. I was quite happy with the way I handled everything tonight. The end where we walked out onto the court was a really strong breeze. When you were at that end you were playing with the wind, so it was tricky because it was a very strong breeze. When you are down the far end of the court you had to do a lot more defending. If you tried to play with any sort of height the ball was dropping short. It was very easy for me or him to attack. I tried to just keep the ball low from that end, I used a lot of slice, and played pretty flat. It was tough for him and it worked”, said Murray.
Murray got through to the semifinal dropping one set. “For me it was tricky one to judge, to say how well I played, because I found the conditions difficult tonight. So I tried to use the conditions to my advantage and played a slightly different style than what I had been in the other matches. I would say the match against Dimitrov was a very high level. It was a clean match. Both of us were striking the ball well. I made improvements with each of the matches. I just tried to play the best with what the conditions were allowing you to do and I think I did that quite well”
Despite the defeat Kyrgios was happy with the experience of playing his second Grand Slam quarter final and the first in the home Major in the famous Rod Laver Arena
“It was a really good experience. That was my first Aussie Open Grand Slam match in the Rod Laver Arena, so that was really cool. But it was too good for me tonight. There are some things I can take from that match and get better at. I think that he has got a good chance of winning the whole thing”, said Kyrgios
In the semifinal Murray will face Tomas Berdych who beat last year’s finalist Rafa Nadal 6-2 6-0 7-6 (7-5) in straight sets breaking a 17-match losing streak against the Spanish player who was playing just his 10th match but just his first against a top 10 player since losing to Nick Kyrgios in the fourth round at Wimbledon.
“It did not feel any different going into the match knowing I would play against Berdych rather than Nadal because Tomas had played very well so far up to today and Rafa’s form had been a bit up and down. He was coming in having not really played much tennis at all for quite a long time. When he was playing towards the end of last year he certainly wasn’t fit, so I wouldn’t imagine he would have been practicing loads either. I wasn’t too surprised. Rafa got himself back into the match in the third set and he was clearly not playing so well at the beginning”, said Murray
Berdych dominated the first two sets dropping just two games in the first two sets but Nadal clawed his way into the match when he fended off two match points when he was down 15-40 in the 12th game. Berdych raced to 5-1 in the tie-break but Nadal fought back reeling off three consecutive points. Berdych lost his double mini-break lead but he earned two more match points with his forehand return winner. Nadal saved the first but Berdych converted on his second match point at 6-5 with his second serve after two hours and 13 minutes. Berdych beat Nadal for the first time since the 2006 Madrid quarter finals.
“It was not my day. I did not play with the right intensity, with the right rhythm and my opponent played better than me. You have to play better against a player like Tomas. I didn’t play my best tennis today. ”, said Nadal after the match.
Berdych is now coached by Daniel Vallverdu, who worked for a long time with the Scotsman but left his team last November. Berdych leads 6-4 and won the last two head-to-head matches. They are 3-3 level in hard-court matches. Berdych won their last match at Cincinnati in 2013.
“I will find it weird on the day but it’s something that you del with as a player. My goal isn’t to beat Dani, my goal is to beat Berdych. So I don’t think about that in the next days.”
