Murray beats Raonic to face Djokovic in final

Milos Raonic played through the pain of a thigh injury as he missed his bid Friday to become the first Canadian man to reach a Grand Slam final.

It is a record Murray is determined to improve but Mauresmo admitted that beating Djokovic, especially on a court where he has won five Australian Open titles, will be incredibly hard.

“Five finals is a great achievement. I don’t know why you’re here taking photos but we’ll be there supporting you”, a tearful Murray said in a courtside interview. So I’m very proud of him. Doesn’t matter what’s happened in the past really.

“It’s about what happens on Sunday”.

In fact, Djokovic has won 10 of the last 11 games two years ago, Murray found the flaw at the Rogers Cup at Uniprix Stadium in August. “We’ve played a bunch of times here and hopefully this time it can be a different result”.

Murray has had a lot on his mind this time. His wife, Kim, is due to give birth to their first child in February and he said he would fly home if she went into labour early. “I should be happy about that”, Murray told reporters.

The Serb, who fell just one win short of a calendar-year Grand Slam in 2015, demolished 17-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer in a sublime semi-final featuring two spellbinding opening sets. That was to be Raonic’s only break of the match but it was enough to win the first set and, after Murray had pounced to even up the contest, he ramped up his 230 kilometre-perhour serve to clinch the third on tiebreak. It was Raonic’s only break of the match, with Murray fending off six other break-point chances. He needed a medical timeout, and in the fourth set had a massage from the trainer.

After having his serve broken to open the fifth set, Raonic walked back to his chair and broke his racket by smashing it twice on the hardcourt surface.

He reached his fifth Melbourne final yesterday with a 4-6, 7-5, 6-7, 6-4, 6-2 win over Milos Raonic.

Slowed by injury, Raonic was unable to keep pace against the second seed of the tournament.

Raonic had been hoping to join Eugenie Bouchard in the rarefied circle of Canadians who’ve reached Grand Slam singles finals – Bouchard did it at Wimbledon in 2014. The Serbian will again stand in his path on Sunday as the Scot seeks to add another grand slam title to his 2012 U.S. Open and 2013 Wimbledon crowns.

For now, Murray is planning on playing.

“But you’ve also got [Milos] Raonic and a lot of players there who are just starting to come into their own, and I think that will show up through this year”.

Murray’s older brother Jamie is in the doubles final on Saturday, giving the Scottish siblings the distinction of being the first brothers to appear in the singles and doubles finals at the same major in the Open era.

That final will follow Angelique Kerber’s attempt to knock six-times Australian Open champion Serena Williams off her perch in the women’s final.

Both teams are bidding to win their first Grand Slam doubles title together.

Mirza couldn’t extend her run in mixed doubles, losing with her partner Ivan Dodig of Croatia 7-5, 7-6 (4) later Friday to Elena Vesnina and Soares in the semifinals.