Andy Murray hoping it’s fourth time lucky

Tennis: Andy Murray spoke of his pride at reaching a fourth Australian Open final in the last six years after winning a bad-tempered semi-final clash with Tomas Berdych that was given added spice by the courtside antics of Murray’s fiance Kim Sears.

Murray recovered from losing the opening set to win 6-7 (6/8) 6-0 6-3 7-5 in three hours and 26 minutes and set up a Sunday showdown with either world number one Novak Djokovic or defending champion Stan Wawrinka.

“It’s great,” Murray said. “To be in the final four times here, I mean, because I’m surrounded by guys like Roger, Novak and Rafa (Nadal), doesn’t look like much, but that doesn’t happen that often. So I’m very proud of that.”

Murray and Berdych had both attempted to play down the significance of Dani Vallverdu to the contest, the Venezuelan now coaching Berdych after several years in Murray’s camp.

However, Murray admitted there had been extra tension in a tetchy encounter which even saw Murray’s fiancee caught swearing on camera.

“A lot was made of Dani working with him,” he added. “We’ve been friends since we were 15 and I felt like that was a bit unfair and unnecessary. This is sport, there is more to life and I thought it was unfair and created a bit of extra tension. It was there definitely at the beginning but I think everyone calmed down after the start of the match.”

Murray also launched a staunch defence of his coach Amelie Mauresmo. “A lot of people criticised me for working with her and I think so far this week we have showed women can be very good coaches as well,” he added.

“Madison Keys, who reached the semi-finals here, is also coached by a woman in Lindsay Davenport and I see no reason why that can’t keep moving forward so I am very thankful to Amelie for doing it. I would say it was a brave choice from her and hopefully I can repay her in a few days.”

Berdych served for the first set at 5-3 only to be broken back by Murray, who roared in celebration apparently in Vallverdu’s direction, something which did not go down well with the Czech seventh seed. Murray was even less impressed when Berdych asked for some balls to be changed during the 11th game, the Scot complaining to umpire Pascal Maria about the time taken to do so with the score deuce.

And the bad atmosphere continued after Berdych saved a set point on his way to winning the tie-break, Murray complaining to the umpire that Berdych had said something to him as they sat down. “I say to myself, ’Well done, Tomas’. That’s it,” Berdych said in his post-match press conference.

There was more controversy in the fourth set when Murray was given a time violation warning by the umpire, who seemingly did not realise Murray had delayed serving due to the reaction of his fiancee to the previous point being replayed on the big screen.

Footage of Ms Sears appearing to swear volubly at Berdych circulated widely on social media but Murray was unperturbed by the furore when quizzed in the post-match interview.

“When there’s a lot of tension surrounding something then it’s completely normal that, yeah, the whole first set everyone was tight,” he said.

“Yeah, in the heat of the moment you can say stuff that you regret. That’s it.”