Fresh off of his upset win against Rafael Nadal in the Australian Open quarterfinals, seventh-ranked Tomas Berdych is favored to advanced to the championship.
Australian Open 2015 live stream: Schedule and TV coverage for Thursday’s matches
A pair of players who have been under the tutelage of Dani Vallverdu will meet Thursday for a spot in the Australian Open championship.
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At least, according to his Thursday semifinal opponent, No. 6 Andy Murray.
“With the way Tomas has been playing, I would expect that he would go into the match probably as the slight favorite,” Murray recently told BBC Sport. “I think it’s a huge advantage.”
The advantage refers to Murray’s former coach, Dani Vallverdu, who is now working with Berdych. The relationship between Vallverdu and Murray, now 27, goes back to their teenage years, when both were training in Spain.
“Dani knows my game inside out,” Murray added. “I would expect he would come up with a great game plan.”
Berdych is 6-4 in his career against Murray, and has won each of their last two matches. Each player has a victory over the other in grand slam play.
On the women’s side, top-ranked Serena Williams will take on Madison Keys, who dispatched Venus Williams on Tuesday. Keys is the only unranked player to reach the women’s semifinal round, which also consists of a match between No. 2 Maria Sharapova and No. 10 Ekaterina Makarova. Both matches will be televised Wednesday night in the States, but actually take place Thursday in Australia.
TV Schedule (all times Eastern)
9:30 p.m.-2 a.m. (ESPN2, WatchESPN) -- Women’s semifinals (Sharapova vs. Makarova; Williams vs. Keys)
3:30-6 a.m. (ESPN, WatchESPN) -- Men’s semifinals (Murray vs. Berdych)
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