Andy Murray reached his first ATP final in two years after beating World No. 25 Reilly Opelka in a tight three-set encounter at the Sydney Tennis Classic today.
The former World No. 1’s return of service help him in good stead as he cancelled out the American’s big serve to win 6-7(6), 6-4, 6-4.
“You can’t really prepare for it, to be honest, you just have to try and adjust while you’re out there. I chose to block quite a few returns, to get lots in play today, which worked pretty well,” Murray said.
“It’s tough but returning has always been one of the strongest parts of my game, and I used it well today.”
The Brit fought back from 5-1 down in the first set to force a tiebreak before Opelka eventually won out 8-6.
But Murray bounced back in the second set, breaking at 2-1 to outpace the American, dropping just one point on serve to tie the match.
At 3-3 in the third set it could have gone either way before Murray broke at 5-4 and then held his serve to serve out the match.
He will meet either fellow Brit Daniel Evans or Russian Aslan Karatsev in Saturday’s final.
