Raonic loses Aussie Open semifinal to Murray

The victory puts Murray through to his fifth Melbourne final and a fourth against Djokovic, to whom he has previously lost in 2011, 2013 and a year ago.

By Paul NewmanAndy Murray will play in his fifth Australian Open final here on Sunday but the Scot was pushed to the limit before beating Milos Raonic 4-6, 7-5, 6-7, 6-4, 6-2 in a gruelling semi-final that lasted more than four hours.

Up two sets to one, a groin injury slowed Raonic as he edged towards a first grand slam final of his career.

It would be Raonic – in just his second major semi-final – who would make the faster start under the half-closed roof at the Rod Laver Arena.

Federer restored some pride by taking the third set and made the champion work hard through some breathtaking rallies in the fourth before the Serbian took his place in a title decider against Andy Murray or Milos Raonic.

In the second, Murray continually chipped away at Raonic’s serve with hopes of securing that break, but Raonic did well to save break points in the second and sixth games.

“It was tough because he (Raonic) didn’t miss one first serve in the (third set) tiebreaker and he has one of the best serves in tennis”, Murray said. “I couldn’t have cared less what happened on the court”, he said.

Raonic took a 5-2 lead in the tiebreaker, allowed Murray to close to 5-4 before winning the final two points on a Murray error into the net and an ace. The forehand is much improved in the past few years but remains the side to target at the important times.

The usually stony-faced Canadian thrashed his racquet to the court as he gave up a fifth-set break; his frame ailing and his prospects shot.

The great Bjorn Borg lost four times in the US Open final without ever lifting the trophy.

In an unusual start, the first seven points of the match went against serve, with Raonic breaking at love and then facing triple-break point before holding for a 2-0 lead.

“You can’t afford to do anything poorly – Novak’s played extremely well”, Murray said. “That’s why I lashed out the way I did”, he said.

“It’s unfortunate. It’s probably the most heartbroken I felt on court, but that’s what it is”.

Jamie Murray and Brazil’s Bruno Soares will play Canada’s Daniel Nestor and Radek Štěpánek in the doubles final tomorrow. On the road to the finals Djokovic has defeated H. Chung 6-3 6-2 6-4 in the first round. That’s all I can keep doing.

Tentative returns and mistimed lobs meant Murray was already muttering to himself and he was struggling to get sight of the Raonic serve, which was coming down at the first attempt 83 per cent of the time while regularly hitting speeds of 230 km/hour.

“Going against Aga, you have to be ready or be ready to go home and I was able to do everything that I needed to do”, said Williams.