Andy Murray marches into Australian Open semis with a fine win over Nick Kyrgios

Andy Murray celebrates his win over Nick Kyrgios in the quarterfinals

Melbourne, Jan 27 (IANS)

Britain's Andy Murray entered the Australian Open semi-finals for the fifth time after beating rising Australian star Nick Kyrgios 6-3, 7-6(5), 6-3 here Tuesday. Murray would face World No.7 Tomas Berdych for a place in the final at Melbourne Park after the Czech ousted No.3 Rafael Nadal earlier in the day.

Murray has lost both his previous two meetings with Berdych and trails 4-6 in career head-to-head meetings.

Murray, the two-time Grand Slam champion kept his emotions steady and won the big points to stop Kyrgios building up early momentum. The No. 6 seed broke through in the sixth game to seal the 32-minute opener before Kyrgios settled down in the second set.

The Canberra native stayed with Murray to force a tie-break and threatened to seize the initiative as three straight points saw him go up 3-2 in the breaker. But Murray again asserted himself and came back from 5-6 down to win the tie-break and clinch the second set.

From there on, Murray didn't look back and claimed the contest in two hours and five minutes.