Milos Raonic falls to Andy Murray in marathon Australian Open semifinal
Canadian hampered by injury in 4-hour match
Milos Raonic's run is over at the Australian Open.
The 13th-seeded Canadian fell to second-seeded Scotsman Andy Murray 4-6, 7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-2 on Friday in a semifinal match that lasted more than four hours.
For a time, the big-serving Raonic appeared poised to become the first male tennis player representing Canada to reach a Grand Slam singles final.
The Thornhill, Ont., native took a 2-1 lead in sets by winning a third-set tiebreaker before things unravelled in the fourth, which Murray won on the strength of a service break at love in the seventh game.
Raonic was hampered by an adductor problem in his upper right leg that began bothering him late in the third set and later forced him to take a medical timeout. Raonic didn't play the same with the injury and went quietly in the fifth and deciding set.
"I couldn't push off, I couldn't get up to serve, and I couldn't change direction," said Raonic, who was playing in his second career Grand Slam semi. "Probably the most heartbroken I've felt on court."
After Murray broke serve to open the fifth, a frustrated Raonic smashed his racket on the court, breaking it. Murray went on a run of winning 20 of 25 points to go ahead 4-0 and all but clinch the match.
Raonic finished with 78 unforced errors, 50 more than Murray, but also hit 72 winners to 38.
Canada's Nestor to play for doubles crown
Murray, a four-time losing finalist in Melbourne, will face top-ranked defending champion Novak Djokovic on Sunday (3:30 a.m. ET) in a rematch of last year's championship contest.
Djokovic is 5-0 in Australian Open finals, including 3-0 vs. Murray, and owns 10 Grand Slam titles to Murray's two.
"He loves playing on this court — we've played a bunch of times here," Murray said. "Hopefully it can be a different result."
The women's final goes Saturday at 3:30 a.m. ET. If six-time champion Serena Williams defeats No. 7-seeded Angelique Kerber, she'll equal Steffi Graf's mark of 22 Grand Slam singles titles — a record in the Open era and the second most in history behind Margaret Court's 24.
Immediately following that match, Canada's Daniel Nestor and his Czech teammate Radek Stepanek will play in the men's doubles final against Britain's Jamie Murray and Brazil's Bruno Soares.
Nestor is seeking his second Australian Open title and first since 2002. The 43-year-old from Toronto recently earned his 1,000th pro doubles victory, and has won eight Grand Slam doubles championships.
With files from The Associated Press