Andy Murray overcomes Milos Raonic

LONDON: Andy Murray's tennis may have been ragged, but the battling Briton's spirit stayed true to form, refusing to fade even as winners (54 in all) sparked off his opponent's racket strings in the semi-finals of the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. The 25-year-old, Milos Raonic, with a barn-door build, who had lost all his five meetings with the British superstar this season, gave it everything he had.Only that Murray, playing for a greater prize, the year-end No.1 ranking, had a little more.
Murray, coming into the last four clash, with a 22-match winning streak came through the titanic clash 5-7, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (11-7) in 3 hours and 38 minutes before a raucous weekend crowd at the O2 Arena on Saturday. The Briton will play the winner of the second semi-final between four-time defending champion Novak Djokoic and Japan's Kei Nishikori. Should the Serb come through in the late-night encounter, the title clash will be a shootout for the top ranking.
Murray, who is now into his fifth straight final and 13th of season, said of the semifinals clash, "It was obviously unbelievably tough. I had to fight very, very hard to get over the line. It was obviously tough going into the tiebreak having been broken twice serving for the match. The atmosphere was amazing. This is what we play for, for matches like these.''
Raonic, who provided the rainbow effect with his electric red wristbands and matching sneakers, had chances aplenty on the Murray serve in the ninth game of the opening set, where the Scot was warned for time violation. Murray, theatre on a tennis court, was rolling his head, grumbling and smiling sarcastically at his hits and misses. Still the Briton managed to hold serve at which point it looked like a lost opportunity for the Canadian, who did well to draw level at 5-all.
The 11th game had none of the drama of the Scot's previous service game, two forehand errors, one at the net and the other from the back of the court, gave the Canadian two opportunities to break. But Murray obliged, contributing to his own fall with his second doublefault of the match to be broken after 53 minutes of play. Raonic then closed out the set with a down-the-middle 111 mph serve.
After the completion of the set, Murray took on chair umpire Damien Dumusois, complaining to the Frenchman in schoolboy fashion that he was quick to penalize him, but didn't call on Raonic, "who went over the time twice." The umpire obviously didn't agree with the world No.1, who told him "we can watch it later."
Murray and Raonic traded serves early in the second set, the fourth seed broke in the third game only to be broken back in the very next game, when he failed to control a volley at love. Murray, aided by a screaming full house, labored through the match. He held on to his serve in a long-drawn 11th game and Raonic pushed the set to tie-break. The world No.1 kept it tight in the shootout, taking a 4-1 lead. It wasn't that the Canadian did plenty wrong here, only that Murray was finally playing like the top-seed he is.
Murray worked his way back in the eighth game of the decider, rallying from 0-30 down to hold serve. The crowd favourite then won eight straight points from 0-30 (in the eighth game) to break Raonic at love in the ninth game. His opponent sent a backhand into the net to all but surrender the match. Only that Raonic wasn't done yet, he broke right back in the next game when Murray erred. The Scot reacted by hitting a ball into the roof and was duly slapped with another code violation. The players traded serves again, pushing the semifinal clash to another tie-break, in which Murray, battled a match point, to close out on his fourth opportunity in stellar fashion.