Andy Murray into Australian Open semi-finals
23rd January 2013
Andy Murray has reached the semi-finals in Melbourne Park for the fourth year in a row after a straight sets win over Jeremy Chardy.
Murray, who is yet to drop a set at this year’s Australian Open, overcame the Frenchman 6-4, 6-1, 6-2 in under two hours on Rod Laver Arena.
"I started the match pretty well I thought" said 25 year-ol Murray. "Then when he got a break back in the first set, I became a bit tight. He's a tough guy to play against because of the nature of his game and his style. He goes for a lot of shots and, you know, he can play a couple of games where he misses and then, you know, three, four games he's hot and he makes very few errors and puts you under a lot of pressure.
So, yeah, that's why it's tough to play against him. But I thought I did a pretty good job throughout the match. There were a couple of games I could have done a bit better on, but for the most part it was good."
World No.3 Murray will play either Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga or Swiss Roger Federer in the final four.
Murray at the Australian Open
2010: Runner-up
2011: Runner-up
2012: Semi-finals
Juniors
Katy Dunne was in action in the third round of the girls’ singles but was defeated 6-3, 6-4 by Russian Elizaveta Kulichkova.
Wheelchair Tennis
Lucy Shuker and Andy Lapthorne enjoyed a tremendous first day at the Australian Open Wheelchair Championships at Melbourne Park after Shuker reached her first Australian Open women's singles semi-final in three attempts and Lapthorne won the first of his three round-robin quad singles matches.
Shuker made a slow start against former world No.1 Daniela di Toro of Australia, but after bowing out of the first Grand Slam of the year at the quarter-final stage in both 2010 and 2011, the world No.7 battled back to take the second set and then came from behind in the final set to complete a 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory.
World No.6 Nick Taylor forced second seed Lapthorne into a first set tie-break and looked to have the first set under control as he took a 5-1 lead. But the World No.4 battled back to take the tie-break 7-5 in their quad singles round-robin match.