Recap of the fiercest battles of 2012: Djokovic vs. Murray – Australian Open 2012
Serbian number one, Novak Djokovic, rallied past the British contestant, Andy Murray, in the semi-final round of the Australian Open Grand Slam Championship held at the hard courts of Melbourne. The higher ranked Serbian penned
down his win after a five-set thrilling match, 6-3, 3-6, 6-7(4), 6-1, 7-5, taking four hours and 50 minutes.
In a post match interview, Murray told the media, “Physically both of us were obviously tired. You know, once you get behind in a set, you have to weigh up whether it's worth trying to get yourself back into it or saving yourself
for a fifth set. Everyone always says to me, Andy's too passive; he doesn't go for his shots enough. I was moving well and dictating a lot of the points, which is important. After last year, the year that Novak's had, I think there's a very fine line between
being No. 1 in the world and being 3 or 4. I feel tonight that I closed that gap.”
The right-hander Serb secured 61 percent initial serve precision with 11 aces in total. He made six double faults in total but made just 69 unforced errors. He was fortunate enough to bag away 69 of 104 first and just 30 of 67
second delivery points. He secured the lead by capitalizing on 11 of 26 serve break opportunities and his challenger attained just seven of 24. In comparison to this, Murray had 63 percent first serve precision with nine aces. He made 10 double faults with
86 unforced errors in the entire matchup. He followed his opponents lead and managed to snatch away 70 of 110 first and 19 of 64 second serve points.
The 25-year-old British struggled hard to overcome the might of Djokovic. The Serbian professional maintained his strong and more dominating game plan with his long forehands. Murray was unable to stand his pressure but he fished
for new opportunities until the end. He came up with a handful of cracking points displaying his improved performance than last year. However his response was comparatively slower than his opponent and as the match progressed towards the end, it was impossible
to hold the front line.
The right-hander, Djokovic, adopted a more defensive approach and snatched away majority of the points. He remained solid like a rock and fired across long rallied and went toe-to-toe from the baseline. The Scot managed to raise
a step above than his usual but surely had to long way to go.
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