Andy Murray stormed passed Australia’s Nick Kyrgios in straight sets to reach his fifth Australian Open semi-final.
Despite a comeback from the 19-year-old in the second set tiebreak, Murray snubbed the opportunity and took the victory 6-3 7-6 (7-5) 6-3.
The sixth seed will meet Tomas Berdych on Thursday who took out Rafael Nadal for the first time in 18 meetings in a similar fashion.
Murray said: “For me tonight it was a tricky one to judge, to say how well I played, because I found the conditions difficult.
“So I tried to use the conditions to my advantage and played a slightly different style than what I had been in the other matches.
“I just tried to play the best with what the conditions were allowing you to do, and I think I did that quite well.”
The Australian teenager was undoubtedly outsmarted by the Brit despite having the support of the Melbourne crowd.
Kyrgios, known for his theatrics and showboating on court, once again didn’t fail to disappoint, as he smashed a racquet in the second set tiebreak, but unusually managed to escape a warning.
Murray, 27, has made it to his 15th Grand Slam semi-final having dropped only one set in his previous five matches.
Thursday’s semi-final clash against Berdych will make interesting watching as the Czech player is now working with Dani Vallverdu who Murray split with last year.
Vallverdu knows the Brit’s game better than anyone having been his hitting partner since they were at the Sanchez Casal Tennis Academy as teenagers.
Murray added: “It’s just something that you deal with as a player.
“My goal isn’t to beat Dani; my goal is to beat Berdych.”
