Murray makes 11th Slam final
LONDON — The 11th Grand Slam final of Andy Murray’s career will be unlike any of the others in at least one way: The opponent will not be Roger Federer or Novak Djokovic.
Murray, the 2013 champion at Wimbledon, reached his third major title match of 2016 with a no-nonsense 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 victory against 10th-seeded Tomas Berdych in the semifinals Friday.
Supported by thousands of his countrymen at Center Court, Murray broke serve five times and played cleanly as can be, committing only nine unforced errors, 21 fewer than Berdych.
On Sunday, No. 2 Murray will play No. 6 Milos Raonic, a Canadian making his debut in a Grand Slam final.
“Obviously, first time I’ll play a Slam final against someone that isn’t Roger or Novak. So, yeah, that’s different,” Murray said. “But you never know how anyone’s going to deal with the pressures of a Slam final. So just have to go out there and concentrate on my side. Do what I can to prepare well for it and see what happens.”
Might be a refreshing change.
That’s because while he did defeat Djokovic for both the 2012 U.S. Open championship and the 2013 Wimbledon championship — famously becoming the first British man to hold the trophy in 77 years — Murray has lost all eight of his other previous major finals.
That includes a pair this year: the Australian Open in January, and the French Open in June, both against Djokovic.
Overall, Murray is 2-5 against Djokovic, and 0-3 against Federer with a major title at stake.
Federer’s bid for a record eighth Wimbledon title was cut short in the semifinals Friday by Raonic, a big-serving Canadian who came from two-sets-to-one down to win in five and reach his first Grand Slam final.
Raonic beat the seven-time champion 6-3, 6-7 (3), 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 on Centre Court, handing the Swiss great his first loss ever in the Wimbledon semifinals after 10 straight wins.
“This one clearly hurts because I felt I could have had it,” Federer said. “So close. It was really so, so close. It clearly hurts.”
The 25-year-old Raonic became the first Canadian man in history to advance to the final of a Grand Slam tournament. The only other Canadian to get this far was Eugenie Bouchard, the women’s runner-up at Wimbledon in 2014.
The second-seeded Murray has a 6-3 career record against Raonic, including a win in the final of the Wimbledon warm-up at Queen’s Club last month.
Raonic served 23 aces among his 75 winners.
