Andy Murray beats Milos Raonic, sets up Novak Djokovic title rematch

Britain’s Andy Murray (TOP) plays a backhand return during his men’s singles semi-final match against Canada’s Milos Raonic on day twelve of the 2016 Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne on January 29, 2016.

“Five finals is a great achievement”. Murray continues to play high level tennis, but you have to worry about fatigue at this point considering he’s played 92 games in his last two matches.

Murray is set to rise up to number two in the world doubles rankings and his escalation marks a remarkable turnaround as just over 12 months ago he sat 41st.

Any player who is going to seriously challenge Djokovic certainly has to have the kind of relentless attitude that Murray showed against Raonic, but his game also needs to be at his sharpest.

Kerber has joked that it’s her national duty to protect the record of Graf, the last German to win the Australian Open, in 1994.

For Murray to pull off the upset Sunday – against the odds, his own accumulated fatigue and the weight of Djokovic’s head-to-head advantage – will surely not be easy.

The most unusual game of the night was the first; with Murray broken to love.

“Let me be the first to congratulate you”, Williams said in her post-match speech.

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic lies in wait for Andy on Sunday, by which point the Murray family could already have an Australian Open champion in their ranks, with Jamie and Soares taking on the veteran duo of Daniel Nestor and Radek Stepanek in Saturday’s showdown on Rod Laver Arena. Andy never gives up. “Lots of rallies, exchanges”, Djokovic said. “It’s no secret we know how we play against each other”, he said. It’s two games that are very much alike, so it’s basically who’s going to outplay who from the baseline. Raonic, who was aiming to become the first Canadian man to reach a Grand Slam singles final, played superbly for three sets, serving beautifully, hitting his ground strokes with power and precision and volleying with confidence.

“Yeah, a lot about tactics and a lot about how of course you handle your emotions of the greatness of that occasion of playing for the Grand Slam title”.

She was so close to a calendar-year Grand Slam in 2015, but no has no chance to push for that honour after losing the first major of the year.

Sunday’s match will be the 31st time the two players have met, with Djokovic having won 21, including 10 of the past 11.

“You can’t afford to do anything poorly – Novak’s played extremely well”. “He comes back even stronger each time, believing that he can do it. He’s been in the final a few times and he’s really putting in a lot of effort to try to get the trophy on Sunday”.

The 28-year-old was defeated in 2010 by Roger Federer and has fallen victim to Novak Djokovic in three of the last five Melbourne Park deciders.

And Murray knows he is likely to have to prepare for another long haul if he is to overcome Djokovic one once more and clinch the title Down Under for the first time in his career.

“The previous disappointments, it’s one tennis match, it doesn’t matter what’s happened in the past really”, Murray said.