Tomorrow’s title match will be the British fifth-seed’s third Grand Slam final overall as he seeks to breakthrough for his first major trophy. Last year Murray was the first British man since John Lloyd in 1977 to play in an Australian Open final.
“Ferrer’s an unbelievable athlete, he’s an unbelievable competitor, he works so hard, he’s in great shape and I was expecting an unbelievably tough match and I got it,” said Murray. “It was great that I managed to come through but he’s such a tough player to play against. He was dictating all the points at the start and in the second set I started to go for my shots a bit more and it paid off.”
The Spaniard made Murray work for every point and kept him on court for three hours and 46 minutes. Ferrer was broken in the seventh game but broke straight back and broke the Scot again to take the opening set in 46 draining minutes.
Ferrer played a dreadful tie-break in the second set to lose it after which Murray’s aggressive approach helped the Scot win the third as well. There was a fitness concern when Murray clutched his left quad during the fourth set, but he again prevailed in another tie-break, getting to five match points and clinching it on the third.
Clijsters-Li showdown
Kim Clijsters will bid to prevent Li Na’s Australian Open fairytale from becoming the first Asian woman to play a Grand Slam final today.
Li scrapped her way into the final with a superb three-set win over Caroline Wozniack 3-6, 7-5, 6-3.
Until the semi-final Li had not dropped a set as she dominated her matches, but she has showed that she has the mental fortitude to dig deep when it was needed.
In contrast, Clijsters has had a mixed run to the final, opening in a blaze of glory as she beat Dinara Safina before struggling against the unheralded Alize Cornet and Ekaterina Makarova. However, she recovered her form when she defeated Vera Zvonareva in the semi-final admitting that it was the best she had played all week.
Third-seed Kim Clijsters
“Li has a good, steady serve and maybe that’s where she’s a little better than me, the consistency with the serve. I am in the final already so I have nothing to lose.”
Seventh-seed David Ferrer
“I had my chance in the last games of the fourth set. But Murray had served really well and I couldn’t do anything. In the tie-break, both times I started really bad.”
Ninth-seed Li Na
“I think it will be a matter of who starts the best, and who can get into their game quicker. I beat Clisters last time so it doesn’t mean anything here.”
Published in The Express Tribune, January 29th, 2011.
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