Nestor and Stepanek lose in Australian Open doubles final

He is no slouch on the slower hard courts, reaching four finals in Melbourne, as well as winning two Miami Masters titles.

“But, you know… Best-of-three, best-of-five, I can run for four or five hours”. Expect the final to be a hotly contested match for the first two sets. The venue will not be fixed.

Djokovic is gunning for his sixth Australian Open title and 11th overall while Murray is bidding to add to his triumphs at the US Open in 2012 and Wimbledon in 2013. Murray, on the other hand, was more interested in looking at some of his losses past year – particularly the one here and in the French Open semi-finals. But I want to win – that’s what we play for, that’s what we work for – and I have a very good shot on Sunday if I play my best tennis. I think both of us will try to serve a high percentage of first serves and not allow the other player attack the second serve too many times.

“It has been a tough tournament”, Murray said, in one of his bigger understatements. The Serbian world No. 1 has 10 Grand Slam titles to Murray’s two, and has won 21 of their 30 head-to-head meetings. Not only did the Murray brothers make the finals in singles and doubles, but fellow Scot Gordon Reid won the men’s wheelchair event on Saturday over Joachim Gerard of Belgium 7-6 (7) 6-4.

His father-in-law, Nigel Sears, was in Melbourne as coach for Ana Ivanovic and had to be rushed to a hospital by ambulance during a match on Rod Laver Arena, which happened to coincide with Murray’s third-round match on an adjacent arena. Both play similar styles, though Murray has more weapons and variety. When they teamed up again at a Grand Slam, they showed they should be a duo to be reckoned with this season.

“The Davis Cup format was country to country this is Europe against the rest of the world”, he said. However as all champions do, Djokovic has raised his game when it has mattered, with great wins over Nishikori and Federer.

“I certainly nearly saw it a year ago”.

Jamie was first off the mark when he partnered Jelena Jankovic to the mixed doubles title at Wimbledon.

Murray, meanwhile, has featured in the most Australian Open finals of any player – four – without claiming a win.

Vandeweghe and Tecau will play either Sania Mirza of India and Ivan Dodig of Croatia or Russian Elena Vesnina and Bruno Soares of Brazil, who play their semifinal later Friday.

“They told me I should play on the lines”. No question about it. I have a tremendous respect and admiration for everything he’s achieved in his career.

After winning her semifinal Thursday, Kerber was asked during her on-court interview if she would seek the advice of Graf, who was the last German woman to win the Australian title, on how to beat Serena.

Williams says “yeah, definitely…”

“I’ve not always given them a lot to cheer but thanks for sticking with me”.

Seizing the initiative sums up rather nicely what Djokovic is doing.

The brothers from Dunblane, Perthshire, have already entered the record books by making the men’s singles and doubles finals at the same Grand Slam event.

But he has to beat Djokovic to finally win here.

Djokovic underlined his physical superiority as he recovered from a set down to win 6-7, 7-6, 6-3, 6-2 and become the first man in the Open era to win three Australian Open titles in a row.