Milos Raonic is through to his first Australian Open semi-final after he defeated Gael Monfils 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in just over two and a quarter hours to set up a meeting with Britain's Andy Murray.
Sets Shared
The opening set saw Raonic, who recently won the Brisbane International title against Roger Federer, racing into a 4-1 lead, breaking Monfils' serve in the fourth game of the match. That break would ultimately prove decisive, as Monfils never really got a sniff of breaking the 13th seed's serve, despite the Canadian making a couple of nervy mistakes in trying to close the set out, but he eventually did, taking it 6-3.
Monfils faced break points in his third service game of the second set, although the Frenchman crucially held from 15-40, and then broke the Raonic serve for the first time in the very next game, before consolidating to move to within a game of levelling the match. The opening set score line was replicated, but it was Monfils the victor, bringing the quarter final to one set a piece.
Raonic Makes His Move
Raonic, in his fourth last-eight appearance in a major, quickly put the disappointment of dropping the second set behind him, as he broke the Monfils serve and consolidated for a 3-0 lead. The trend of a single crucial break in a set and sets being won 6-3 continued, as Raonic moved a set away from his second Slam semi-final; his previous last-four appearance in a Slam was at Wimbledon in 2014
The first four games of the fourth set went on serve, yet as the match entered its third hour, Raonic turned the screw and made the decisive move to break for a 3-2 lead. He lost at this stage of the tournament twelve months ago, but it wasn't to be the case this time around for the ever improving Canadian; he held his serve three final times and booked the fourth and final spot in the semi-finals of the first Grand Slam of 2016.
Murray will be across the net on Friday, after the four-time runner-up in Melbourne was also a four set winner, as he came past eighth seed David Ferrer to reach his sixth Australian Open semi-final. It will be Raonic and Murray's seventh meeting, with the head-to-head level at 3-3.