Murray outlasts Ferrer to seal Australian Open semis berth

Murray has made the final of the Australian Open four times since 2010.

In beating veteran campaigner David Ferrer-twice a semi-finalist in Melbourne and playing in his 14th consecutive Australian Open-in a gruelling three hours and 20 minutes, 6-3 6-7(5) 6-2 6-3, Murray reached his 18th Grand Slam semi-final.

Britain’s Johanna Konta became the first British female to reach a grand slam semi-final in 33 years after she beat Chinese qualifier Shuai Zhang at the Australian Open. The 24-year-old tennis player who was born in Australia to Hungarian parents and moved to England as a teen, however, considers herself fully British.

“It’s really, really good for tennis on the back of the end of past year with the Davis Cup as well, it’s extremely positive, we’ve just got to try and capitalise on it”, said Murray, who will face 13th seed Milos Raonic in the last four.

Novak Djokovic and Federer will contest the other semifinal.

Another break would send Murray coasting into set four and he would take an early 2-0 lead before Ferrer quickly broke back and held to level at two-all.

The weather turned thoroughly British as rain clouds gathered, and after a break in play, Murray ended the match under a closed roof.

Murray liked it with a roof over his head.

I wouldn’t be surprised if there was an upset, but you have to side with Murray. That’s why I’m still playing. “I think I’ve dealt with everything away from the court better than I have on it, probably”.

That set turned out to be one way traffic. “If I can sort of keep up with the efficiency moving forward, I’ll have definitely some opportunities”, Raonic said.

“I’m just so happy that I’m enjoying what I’m doing”.

Milos Raonic beat French Open champion Stan Wawrinka 6-4, 6-3, 5-7, 4-6, 6-3 to advance to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open.

But Kerber ripped up the script to beat the Belarusian for the first time in seven meetings, leaving Azarenka gasping for air.

Kerber poses a formidable roadblock to Konta. But Kerber showed impressive resilience and won five straight games to clinch the match.

“Steffi is a champion. A challenge I believe I have within myself to find a solution to”, the 25-year-old said courtside. “She was and still is my idol”, Kerber said of Graf, who won 22 grand slam titles – an Open-era record that Serena Williams is gunning to match in Melbourne.

But after her quarterfinal win over Zhang Shuai here on Wednesday, she infused some humor into the line of questioning. I was like: ‘It’s over at last, now I can go and eat!’ That’s all I plan to do for now. Then I felt like started to play better as the match went on. Even when I’ve been broken, I’ve fought hard in the next game and made it very difficult for my opponents. And the 2001 Wimbledon champion had plenty to say about the match-fixing allegations that have rocked the sport this week at the Australian Open. With a victory, Raonic would go to his first semifinal at a Grand Slam event. “Angie is a fighter”.

But she took a medical timeout for treatment on her upper left leg early in the second set and was in obvious pain the rest of the match.

Graf is now married to Andre Agassi.