Murray shatters Australia’s Great Hope

ANDY Murray of Great Britain, seeded six in the tournament, put a halt to the march of the Australian teenager, Nick Kyrgios, in an epic quarter-final match in Rod Laver Arena. Murray lost the first point of the match, but both players won their serves. In the fifth game, Kyrgios opened with an ace and went up 30-0 but lost three successive points to give Murray the first break point of the set. 

  The Australian leveled with an ace to deuce but Murray got the advantage and held on to win the game. The Briton won his next service game to consolidate his lead to 5-3. Serving with new balls, Nick opened with an ace and got the first game point at 40-30 but Murray fought back to deuce. An easy forehand volley miss by Nick gave another advantage to Andy. It was also leveled. One more advantage and Murray took the set by six games to three.

  Kyrgios opened serving in the second set and held his game. The second game involved a classic rally but a net-cord ball gave Murray the game. The third game was long drawn out and full of thrills. The first serve by Nick was called good but successfully challenged by Murray.   Down 0-30, the Australian hit a crosscourt forehand winner wrong-footing Murray. Then he followed with an ace to reach game point.  

  He played a sloppy shot to take game to deuce and lost the first advantage that he cancelled with an ace unsuccessfully challenged by Murray. Another ace gave him game point but it was deuced by a classic volley from Murray. Kyrgios took the game to lead 2-.1. Murray’s successful mix of shots gave him the fourth game. At game point in the 7th game, Murray hit a drop shot which Nick chased down and won the point with a controlled topspin down to Murray’s left baseline. 

  Games went with serve until the tie break.  Each player lost service points three times but it was Andy who took the set.

  In the third set, games were even by serve. The sixth game went to deuce on Kyrgios’ serve. Murray got the first advantage with a service return winner but it was leveled by the hard-serving Nick. The next advantage went to Murray and he held it to earn the first break on a lob over Nick that he ran down and hit between legs to Murray’s waiting racket at the net for an easy volley drop. The crowd roared. In the next game, as Murray prepared to serve at 15-30, a cricket landed near him and a ball girl came to pick it. Although Murray won the point to level at 30-all, he went down 30-40 for the first break opportunity to Nick. 

 He cancelled it but the Australian took the game for his only break in serve. This generated great expectation of a possible come-back as he did against Seppi in his preceding match. Serving at 30-15, there was a moment of hesitation between serves and Nick lost the point.   Although he went up 40-30, the game went to deuce and was eventually taken by Murray. Serving for the match, Murray lost the first point but took the next three to win the set by six games to three.

The match lasted two hours and five minutes. In the semi-finals, Murray will play Tomas Berdych, a surprise winner over Rafael Nadal by the scores of 6-2; 6-0; 7-6.