Murray Edges Isner For SF Berth

© Getty ImagesAndy Murray has reached the semi-finals at all four Grand Slams this year.

ATP World Tour No. 4 Andy Murray overcame sturdy resistance from John Isner on Friday, edging the American No. 28 seed 7-5, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(2) to reach the US Open semi-finals in New York.

The 24-year-old Murray became just the seventh man in the Open Era to reach the semi-finals of all four Grand Slam championships in the same year, following in Novak Djokovic’s footsteps after the Serb defeated Janko Tipsarevic in the quarter-finals on Thursday. Murray finished runner-up to Djokovic in the Australian Open final, and lost out to Rafael Nadal in the Roland Garros and Wimbledon semi-finals.

For a place in his fourth Grand Slam final, Murray will face defending US Open champion Nadal, whom he defeated in the 2008 semi-finals. The Scot is looking to win his first major title, having also lost out to Roger Federer in the finals of the 2008 US Open and the 2010 Australian Open before missing out in Melbourne this year.

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"I've beaten [Nadal] before in the semis; I won against him also at the Australian Open," said Murray, looking ahead to Saturday. "And when I've won against him, it's always been on hard courts. It's a good surface for me to play him on. Obviously at the French I would go into that match not being a favourite; then Wimbledon I've got a chance, but his record has been great there. I think on the American hard courts I think it's a close, close matchup.

"The serve is very important against him," continued the Dunblane native. "If you can get free points on your serve and you can hold comfortable service games, you can put pressure on him that way.  But if you're not, then you have to play a lot of rallies. He obviously doesn't make many mistakes and his ball is very heavy, so that makes it tough."

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With victory over Isner, Murray extended his winning streak to 10 matches, having come into the US Open on the back of his second title of the season in Cincinnati (d. Djokovic). The Scot’s first title this year came at The Queen’s Club (d. Tsonga) in June. He has compiled a 39-10 match record in 2011.

Isner also went into the match on a nine-match winning streak, having won his hometown title in Winston-Salem last week. The American had been in supreme serving form to reach his first major quarter-final, but paid the price for a 10-minute lapse against Murray. The Scot capitalised on a double fault to break for 6-5 in the first set and, after closing out the set, won Isner’s next service game, which would be the only break of the second set.

Murray could not maintain his momentum at the start of the third set, though, as Isner broke for the first time to lead 2-0 when the Scot hit a forehand long. Isner went on to save a break point in the fifth game before closing out the set to claw his way back into contention.

Isner had Murray in trouble in the ninth game of the fourth set when he led 15/40, but could not convert either of the break points. In the subsequent tie-break, the odds were stacked in Isner’s favour, with the American having won his past nine tie-breaks – including six at the US Open. However, he made a bad start as he double faulted on the third point, and aggressive ball-striking from Murray saw him take full advantage as he raced to a 6-2 lead, clinching victory with an unreturned serve after three hours and 24 minutes.

"I thought it was a really high standard today," reflected Murray. "I thought I played really well. I hit the ball very clean from the back of the court. When he's serving you have no option other than to just try and get yourself in the rallies. You're under a lot of pressure on your own service games, so you don't want to just be rash and start trying to make huge winners or do anything stupid. I didn't give him too many opportunities to break me and did a good job on my own serve."

Isner added, "Somewhere along in that third set I started to get more comfortable and I started playing better. I played well in the third and fourth set. Just didn't go my way at the end. I was a little bit nervous. I think that comes with the fact that I wasn't swinging out like I felt like I should have early on in the match. I was just guiding the ball.That was a little bit of nerves. It just took a while to free up."

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