Australian Open: Andy Murray plans to take Novak Djokovic’s legs away

ANDY Murray may have considered his previous match at the Australian Open a pain in the neck but he had to overcome the real thing to beat Kei Nishikori and secure a place in the semi-finals against world No 1 Novak Djokovic.

Murray described his fourth-round defeat of Mikhail Kukushkin as “boring” and “pointless” due to the Kazakh’s hip injury, which prevented it from being a genuine contest. And, while he took greater enjoyment from the 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 win over Nishikori, he will not have been impressed by getting just 44 per cent of his first serves in play.

When asked about it afterwards, the world No 4 revealed he was suffering from a minor ailment. “I could have served better today, that’s for sure,” he said. “I’ll need to serve better in the next match. I had a sore neck when I woke up – I don’t know if it had something to do with that. I have been serving well and been getting a lot of free points on it. I’ll work on it tomorrow and get the rhythm back.”

That was the only facet of Murray’s game which required improvement after a commanding display which meant the outcome was never in doubt.

Nishikori gave his all but Murray’s greater weight of shot and superior fitness were decisive. “There were quite a few good rallies. A lot of the long points, the fun rallies he was winning, he came up with some great shots,” the Scot said. “But I was just a little bit more solid and probably had a little bit more in the tank than he did. He played three long matches and with the way that he plays he needs to play a lot of long rallies. That was to my advantage today.”

Nishikori, the first player from Japan to play in the last eight at the Australian Open in 80 years, showed glimpses of his potential but, like Kukushkin, seemed to be suffering for his exertions in previous rounds – he came into the clash having spent four hours more on court than his opponent.

Murray stormed into a 3-0 lead and overcame some nervy moments on serve to claim a first set the Japanese really had to take if he was to cause an upset. Having traded breaks at the start of the second, Murray won the next two games and also had a point for 4-1 as Nishikori, despite holding on, started to look like he was feeling the pace. And the 22-year-old from Shimane buckled again when serving to stay in the set.

From two sets down and given his physical condition, a Nishikori comeback was extremely unlikely and so it proved as Murray cruised through to a meeting with Djokovic, who advanced with a 6-4, 7-6 (7-4), 6-1 victory over fifth seed David Ferrer.

Nishikori admitted to feeling fatigued but insisted that was not a factor in the result.

“Maybe I was a little bit tired,” he said. “But I wasn’t too bad. I just didn’t play well enough to beat him. He was making me run side to side all the time and it was tough for me to play longer rallies. I wasn’t good enough physically or mentally.”

As for his clash with Djokovic, a repeat of last year’s final won comprehensively by the Serbian, Murray said: “You have to play great tennis and try to take his legs away. “I will need to have a gameplan, stay focused and try to do better than I did last year.”

Djokovic, meanwhile, admitted to having had breathing difficulties during his win over Ferrer. He cut an unhappy figure for much of his match and the world No 1, who has previously undergone sinus surgery, revealed afterwards he had been struggling for air.

“I found it very difficult after a long time to breathe because I felt the whole day my nose was closed a little bit,” he said.

“I just wasn’t able to get enough oxygen. I needed more time which I didn’t have but in these conditions, at this stage of the tournament, when you’re playing someone like David, your physical strength and endurance come into question.

“But I am not too concerned about that at all. I’m really fit and I have no concerns of recovering for the next match. It’s just a matter of breathing better through the nose.”

Given his problems, it was a remarkable performance from Djokovic.

Fifth seed Ferrer, as always, was a game opponent but lacked the weapons to really trouble the Serb.

“It was a great match, we played for almost three hours – I think the first 30 minutes was just for the first two games,” Djokovic added.