The finals of the 2016 Australian Open men’s singles bracket are now set, with No. 2 seed Andy Murray besting No. 13 seed Milos Raonic in a thrilling five-set war, 4-6, 7-5, 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-2.
Australian Open 2016 results and bracket: Andy Murray into finals after 5-set win over Milos Raonic
Milos Raonic looked dominant, but a surging Andy Murray and a costly hip injury have Raonic out of the Australian Open after falling short in the semifinals.
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Murray looked shaky at first, but a slew of unforced errors in the latter sets ultimately doomed Raonic. Murray played his best tennis of the match in a crucial, final fifth set and it was enough to put Raonic away, and quickly. Raonic was dealing with hip injuries in the match, and after getting looked at by trainers it appeared he had nothing to offer Murray.
Murray will now advance to the finals, where he will take on top seed Novak Djokovic. Beating Djokovic is a tall task, as the Serb has played some of the best tennis of his career over the past few months. In this tournament alone, Djokovic has beaten Roger Federer, Kei Nishikori, Gilles Simon, Andreas Seppi and two unseeded opponents in the first two rounds.
Djokovic did drop one set against Federer, the tournament’s No. 3 seed, but he managed to look incredibly dominant in the other sets and beat Federer, 6-1, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.
Raonic got out to a hot start, downing Murray in the opening set without much issue. He served hard and managed a crucial break, but dropped the second, even closer, set. The match only got closer from there, with the third set going to a tiebreak, which was won handily by Raonic, 7-4, but Murray bounced back with a 6-4 fourth set to force a fifth and final frame.
Raonic served up seven aces in the third set, but it was closer than it should have been due to a pair of double faults and 11 total unforced errors from Raonic. In the fourth set, Raonic’s play was even more sloppy, as he hit 17 unforced errors, to Murray’s eight.
The fifth set saw things quickly unravel for Raonic. He lost his opening service game, double faulting while down 40-15. Murray then easily held serve, and Raonic once again suffered a couple of unforced errors to drop the third game. Murray then had a great opportunity to take a commanding 4-0 lead in the final set, and he did so. Raonic started to recover from his injury briefly, but Murray was in the driver’s seat and ultimately walked out with the win.
Murray will face Djokovic on the tournament’s final day, but the women’s final between Serena Williams and Angelique Kerber comes first, on Saturday.
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