Published>Wed, Jan 27 10 11:23 PM
Andy Murray has some unfinished business to complete before he can think about winning the Australian Open.
The Scot believes he is ready to win his first grand slam and end Britain's 74-year wait for a male champion and plenty of experts agree with him but first he must get past Croatia's Marin Cilic, who knocked him out of last year's U.S. Open.
Last year's Australian Open winner Rafa Nadal is among the believers after he was pummelled by Murray in the quarter-finals, quitting with a knee injury midway through the third set when he had lost all hope of winning.
"Definitely now I'm ready to win a grand slam and hopefully I can do it here," Murray said.
"Even last year in the slams, it took some pretty good performances to win against me.
"I'll try and keep playing like I have been. If I do, I'm going to give myself opportunities to win grand slams. That's what I want to do.
"That's why I work hard and why I play tennis: to try and win these tournaments. I think I've got a good chance of doing it."
Murray, 22, is the only player left in the championship yet to drop a set and is getting better with every match.
The excitement is building in his homeland and among the British media, who have arrived in Melbourne en masse in the hope of penning a different ending to a now familiar tale of dashed hope.
HARD ROAD
His opponent on Thursday is Cilic, a pencil-thin Croat who has taken the hard road to the semi-finals. While the Scot has hardly broken sweat in getting to the last four, Cilic has had an exhausting campaign.
He has spent more than 18 hours on court, eight hours more than Murray, and three of his last four matches have gone to five sets, including his fourth-round win over U.S. Open champion Juan Martin Del Potro and his quarter-final victory over Andy Roddick.
"Obviously I feel fresh. I don't know how he feels," Murray said.
"From my side, I feel good physically. That's not going to be an issue for me in the match."
But Cilic, ranked 14th in the world, is also a player Murray remains deeply wary of. The 21-year-old may be appearing in his first grand slam semi-final but Murray knows from experience how dangerous he is.
Murray was also in great form at last year's U.S. Open and was talking up his chances of winning the tournament until Cilic knocked him out in the fourth round in straight sets.
It was a humiliating loss and shook his confidence.
"I was obviously disappointed about what happened there. I had to take a pretty long break afterwards," Murray said.
"I was feeling good going into the U.S. Open. It wasn't the way I would have liked to have lost."
Murray has since rediscovered his self-belief and the confident swagger has returned. He does not think of his match with Cilic as a chance to avenge his loss in New York but knows it is a chance for him to square the ledger, even though he had beaten him three times before.
"Everyone talks about revenge and stuff but I just go out there and every day's a different day in tennis," he said.
"I think that I can win the match. Regardless of what happened at the U.S. Open, if I play well, focus hard and concentrate, then there's no reason why I can't beat him again."
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