Dominant Murray into semi-finals

Andy Murray reached his fifth Australian Open semi-final in six years after a dominant straight-sets victory over Nick Kyrgios in Melbourne on Tuesday night.

The British No 1 looked in scintillating form as he eased his way to his 15th Grand Slam semi-final, where he will play Tomas Berdych on Thursday night.

First set: Murray 6-3 Kyrgios
Murray used all his experience to gain the upper hand in the first set. Playing in his 22nd Grand Slam quarter-final and 16th in succession, Murray baited his 19-year-old opponent into unforced errors on his way to taking the opening set 6-3 in front of a 15,000-strong crowd at the Rod Laver Arena.
Both players held serve comfortably in the opening exchanges, but Murray soon had the edge in longer rallies and began to show his dominance.
The sixth seed took the pace off the ball and forced Kyrgios to make back-to-back forehand errors to lose his serve in the sixth game.
Kyrgios, under the watchful gaze of his expectant home crowd, looked nervous and received a warning from the umpire for making an audible obscenity during his struggle to save two set points.
He did manage to force Murray to serve for the set, but the Scot made no mistake, ending the opener in just 32 minutes.

Second set: Murray 7-6 Kyrgios 
Kyrgios, winner of the Australian Open junior title in 2013, was playing in only his second Grand Slam quarter-final, and found himself having to save break point early in the second set and was having no joy against the power of Murray's serve.
Murray dropped just three points on serve in the second set, winning his last four service games to love, but almost threw all the hard work away in the tie-break.
A forehand lob helped Murray into a 5-4 lead with two serves in his favour, only for the British player to serve his first double fault of the match. However, Murray made no mistake with his next opportunity and took the honours in the second set, leaving Kyrgios smashing his racket and ruing his missed opportunity to get back in the game.
© Getty Andy Murray celebrates winning the second set in his quarterfinal match against Nick Kyrgios

Third set: Murray 6-3 Kyrgios
After going on serve in the early parts of the third set, Murray found himself having to get out of a potentially difficult spot in the fifth game at 0-30 down. But then in the sixth he broke Krygios after a spectacular rally, which included a shot played between the legs, to take advantage.
But the home hero didn't give up and forced his first break point of the entire match, and although Murray saved the first, he then let the Aussie star earn his first break of the match and offer the crowd something to really cheer about, after hitting a tame backhand against the net.

After cutting the bandage on his left thigh at the change of ends Murray seemed to find the extra energy he needed to get over the line. The Olympic champion broke serve again to take 5-3 lead before serving out the match with ease, earning a semi-final spot in two hours and five minutes.
After the match, Murray said: "It was a tricky match, pretty windy conditions so it was tough for both of us and I tried to start as quickly as possible because I know how dangerous Nick is.

“I've seen his matches unfold in the last 18 months, so I wasn't going to underestimate him at all.
“Nick is a huge hitter of the ball so I tried to keep it out of his strike zone. If you use the slice and keep the ball low, it's difficult to control. I played a slightly different style tonight and thankfully it worked."
(MSN)