World number one Novak Djokovic has moved a step closer to defending his Australian Open crown by defeating Andy Murray in the semi-finals in Melbourne this afternoon.
The Serbian broke the Great British number one twice in the opening set on his way to a 6-3 success.
However, Murray responded with two breaks of his own in the second to wrap up a 6-3 win and level up the score in sets at 1-1.
Both players traded early breaks in the third set as the game entered a tie-break. The breaker failed to buck the trend, with players struggling to hold their serves.
Two late breaks from Murray proved decisive and he went on to win the breaker 7-4 in a set which lasted 88 minutes.
The fourth set proved to be a little quicker as Djokovic responded positively as he is eased to a 6-1 win victory in just 25 minutes to force a decisive fifth set.
Both held their service games in the early exchanges, until Djokovic forced Murray into a handful of errors to open up a 4-2 advantage. The Serb went on to serve for the match, but Murray broke to love and went on to hold his service game to level up the scores at 5-5.
Djokovic regained his composure to win his next service game, before breaking Murray to emerge victorious from this five-hour match 7-5.
The Serb will now take on Spain's Rafael Nadal in Sunday's final.
Liam Apicella
