Murray beats Raonic in 5 to reach 5th Australian Open final

Raonic won the first set 6-4, Murray the second 7-5 and the Canadian won the third set 7-6 (4).

Murray took the fourth set 6-4 and then, with the momentum in his favor and Raonic clearly struggling with the injury, dominated the fifth and final set 6-2 to take the match.

Murray fought back in the second set, with one late break of serve separating the two as Murray edged it 7-5. “Hopefully this time it can be a different result”.

Murray had looked to be in danger of leaving the tournament as Raonic took the first set and then edged a tie-break to go 2-1 ahead, within touching distance of his first Grand Slam final. “But I started to get a slightly better read on his serves and made some better returns”.

Murray said earlier this week that he would waste no more energy on the histrionics but the match was just minutes old when he returned to his chair muttering curses having been broken to love in his first service game.

During that mammoth third set Raonic won 91 per cent of the points on his first serve and fired seven aces.

Now speaking from the outside looking in, the Swede has backed Murray to cruise past Milos Raonic and reach his ninth Grand Slam decider.

But the Canadian played a strong tiebreak, hitting two return winners and he brought up two set points which he clinched with an ace to take a 2-1 sets lead in a tense match.

“He loves playing on this court, we’ve played a bunch of times here”, Murray said. I don’t think many people are expecting me to win on Sunday.

“I’m in a much better state (than) where I was 18 months ago when I was in my first semi-final of a grand slam”, said Raonic, the 2014 Wimbledon semi-finalist.

Laver, the Australian great who twice won the calendar-year Grand Slam, said he was honored to put his name to the new competition and didn’t think it would detract from the existing Davis Cup global men’s team tournament.

In what will go down as yet another semi-final to remember at Melbourne Park, the No. 2 seed was pushed to the brink by the Canadian Raonic, before the 13th seed broke down with a persistent upper thigh injury which rendered him incapable of seeing out long rallies against one of the world’s premier baseliners.

“I need to keep my game plan very well, not have any lapses in concentration and just play the best I can”, said Murray, who has won just nine of his 30 career meetings with Djokovic.

It was of little consolation for the 25-year-old, however, who was left on the sidelines for much of last season due to a string of injuries.

American Coco Vandeweghe and Horia Tecau of Romania have advanced to Sunday’s mixed doubles final at Melbourne Park with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Slovenian Andreja Klepac and Treat Huey of the Philippines.

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

Murray will now advance to the finals, where he will take on top seed Novak Djokovic.

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. “It was just sort of how the story played out after”.