TheSportsCampus

It was a case of so near yet so far for Britain’s best tennis player Andy Murray. In a match of fluctuating fortunes in which the quality ranged from the zeniths of excellence to the nadirs of mediocrity, Andy Murray came agonisingly close to silencing his critics once and for all but eventually finished second best to the exhausted World No.1 Novak Djokovic in 5 gripping sets in their Australian Open semi-final late on Friday night. Djokovic, the defending champion, trailled by two sets to one heading into the business end of this contest, but somehow managed to dig deep and raise his level of play to eke out a 6-3,3-6, 6-7, 6-1, 7-5 win.  

It was a valiant attempt by Murray to take down his good friend and the best player in the world, Novak Djokovic. Djokovic just didn’t seem to be in match-fit condition in the first 2 and a half sets as he was huffing, puffing and struggling to chase down balls he normally would get to very easily. However, the fighter that the world No.1 is, he hung in and made Murray earn every point. Murray began rather passively, not seizing the moment to take the match by the scruff of its neck and making too many unforced errors in the early sets. Though Murray did move into an attacking mould, especially on the forehand side, during the middle of the match, in the end, his inability to consistently question the Serbian’s circumspect movement did him in.

The match began in bizarre fashion, with Djokovic apparently struggling with his breathing and making some highly unusual errors on his groundstrokes. Surprisingly enough, even Murray was lacking consistency and was the first to blink as he lost his serve in game 4 to trail 1-3. Djokovic was on the verge of consolidating the lead when at 40-30, he served a double fault and then followed it up with a poor drop shot at deuce, eventually going on to lose the game. The British No.4 seed though handed the break right back to the tired looking Djokovic, losing his service game at love and allowing Djokovic to take a 4-2 lead in the first set. There was no looking back for the defending champion from there and after 46 minutes of uncharacteristically scrappy tennis, Djokovic managed to take the first set 6-3.

The Briton's player box, which included his new mentor Ivan Llendl, looked visibly concerned about the status of the match and Murray didn't do much to reduce the tension losing his service game at the start of the second set. The intensity in Murray's baseline shots continued to be abysmally low and  the crowd was absolutely bewildered with the `reactive' attitude of Murray. However, that was soon to change as he moved up a gear in game 4 and broke Djokovic to level the scores at 2-2. On the other hand, the Serbian started looking fatigued and was literally ambling across to a few balls. Murray made full use of the opportunity, breaking Djokovic in his next two service games and finally, despite losing his serve again, held on in the ninth game to pocket the set 6-3.

Just when everyone thought that the Djoker had run out of fuel, he somehow managed to slug it out in the third set. An evenly contested set, which saw the players exchange breaks in the third and fourth games, the set went on serve till 5-4. Djokovic had set points in the 10th game on the Murray serve but failed to take his chances. Murray then produced some breathtaking shots off his forehand wing in the following game to break the Djokovic serve and take a 6-5 lead. But he couldn't buck the trend in the next game, losing his serve and allowing the third set to go into a tie-break. In the breaker, the Briton displayed some much needed killer instinct and quelled a resurgent Djokovic 7-4 to take the all important 2 sets to 1 lead.

Despite the one set deficit, the world no.1 began the 4th set in much the same spirited manner as he ended the third and raced away to a 4-0 lead as a shell-shocked Murray looked on haplessly. The unbelievable transformation in the match brought the otherwise quiet Rod Laver Arena crowd back to life as Djokovic finished off a sensational set with an outright winner, sealing it 6-1 in just 25 minutes and pushing the tug of war into a deciding fifth set.

Murray's ghosts from the two finals past came back to haunt him in the sixth game of the fifth set, as he dropped his serve and fell behind 2-4. After no surprises on the next two service games, the writing seemed to be on the wall for Murray as Djokovic served for the match at 5-3. However, the 24 year old Briton was not done yet as he broke at love and consolidated his break to come right back into the match at 5-5. Djokovic managed to hold his nerve and his serve in the next game to make it 6-5, putting the pressure back on the Murray serve. And this time even the gutsy Murray couldn't come up with a definitive answer to Djokovic's relentless hitting and after 4 hours and 50 minutes on the Rod Laver Arena, Novak Djokovic pulled off a remarkable come-from-behind win to earn a shot at the title on Sunday.

Waiting for him there is arch-rival Rafael Nadal, a four set winner over Roger Federer on Thursday night. Djokovic had Rafa's number last year, beating the Spaniard in each of their six meetings in 2011, but with Rafa playing a lot better at the start of this season, and Djokovic having a day less to recover from today's gruelling encounter, anything could happen come Sunday!

Score:

(1) Novak Djokovic (SRB) d. (4) Andy Murray (GBR) 63 36 67(4) 61 75

File Photograph Copyright: Australian Open