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At the age of 27 Andy Murray could hardly be described as a wise old head but the Scot gave Nick Kyrgios a master-class here today to book his place in the semi-finals of the Australian Open.
Kyrgios, who at 19 was attempting to become the youngest Australian in the Open era to reach the last four of his home Grand Slam tournament, was beaten 6-3, 7-6, 6-3 as Murray out-thought and outplayed the home hero. The world No 6 is through to the semi-finals here for the fifth time in his career.
On Thursday Murray will take on Tomas Berdych and his new coach, Dani Vallverdu, a close friend of the Scot’s and a member of his entourage until last month. Vallverdu helped to mastermind Berdych’s stunning victory yesterday over Rafael Nadal, who had beaten the Czech in their previous 17 matches.
The big-hitting Kyrgios loves to play at breakneck speed, but Murray denied him the power he likes to feed off with clever variations of pace and spin and disrupted his rhythm by taking his time between points.
Australian Open 2015
Although the home fans gave Kyrgios a rapturous welcome, the volume quickly dropped as Murray took control. He made the only break in the first set in the sixth game and took the second set tie-break 7-5, converting his first set point with a brilliant backhand lob. Murray had the better of three successive breaks of serve towards the end of the third set before serving out for victory after two hours and five minutes.
“It was a tricky match,” Murray said afterwards. “It was pretty windy and the conditions were tough for both of us. I tried to start as quickly as possible because I know how dangerous Nick is.”
