Gritty ... Andy Murray grinds past Roger Federer to book a date with Novak Djokovic. Source: Dennis Sabangan / AAP
Andy Murray has clawed his way into Sunday night's Australian Open tennis final against world No.1 Novak Djokovic after seeing off his former grand slam nemesis Roger Federer in a nerve-straining five-setter.
Djokovic would have been delighted to watch Murray slug it out 6-4 6-7 (5-7) 6-3 6-7 (2-7) 6-2 in exactly four hours on Friday night after strolling through his own semi-final against David Ferrer a night earlier in just 89 minutes.
Australian Open: Mens Singles
Round SF, 25/01/13
| Mur (3) | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 |
| Fed (2) | 4 | 7 | 3 | 7 | 2 |
Murray's win sets up a rematch of the US Open final, where he beat the Serb for his maiden grand slam title, and he will be trying to become the first man in the open era to notch his first two major victories back-to-back.
But he could not have made much harder work of beating Federer.
The Scot was in control for much of the night, but kept Federer hanging on with poor tiebreakers in both the second and fourth sets as well as failing to serve out the match when he had the chance in the fourth.
Their only three previous grand slam meetings had been in finals, with Federer victorious on each occasion, all before Murray had broken his grand slam duck.
But the Scottish third seed, buoyed by his US Open win and victory over Federer in last year's Olympic gold medal match, looked confident from the start of their semi-final.
Murray controlled the first set, putting constant pressure on Federer's serve and picking up an early break while having little trouble on serve himself.
With great rhythm on serve and his excellent court-coverage making it unusually difficult for Federer to finish points, the Scot also held the upper hand for most of the second set.
That was until the tiebreaker, when forehand unforced errors on three consecutive points put him 3-1 down.
After levelling at 5-5, a badly mistimed Murray overhead allowed Federer to rip a backhand winner past the Scot and gain a set point, which he converted.
But Murray hit back hard, racing through the third set, which he capped with his 16th ace.
A mental lapse contributed to him dropping serve for the first time early in the fourth set, but he broke back, then looked poised to quickly finish Federer off when he broke again, to love, for a 6-5 lead.
But after the Scot went up 30-15 to be two points from victory, Federer reeled off the next three to force a tiebreaker, then stormed through that to level the match.
As in the third set, Murray channelled frustration into renewed venom, speeding through the first three games of the fifth.
This time there was no let-off for Federer as Murray kept his foot down all the way to the finish.
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