Rampant Murray eyes Aussie Open title

After years of hype, Andy Murray is so tantalisingly close to lifting his maiden
grand slam trophy he can feel it.
The cocksure Scot enters his Australian semi-final with Croatian giant-killer Marin
Cilic on Thursday believing he's destined to land tennis' major spoils.
"Definitely now I'm ready to win a grand slam and hopefully I can do it here,"
Murray said after impressively ousting defending champion Rafael Nadal in the
quarter-finals.
Nadal, who retired with a knee injury while trailing two sets to love and 3-0 in the
third, put his own disappointment aside to anoint Murray as the champion-in-waiting
after producing his best tennis in months yet still coming up short.
"I think he deserves to win his first grand slam and he is going to do it," the
Spaniard said.
Nadal is getting no arguments from Murray.
"Even last year in the slams, it took some pretty good performances to win against
me," the world No.5 said.
"I'll try and keep playing like I have been. If I do, I'm going to give myself
opportunities to win grand slams. That's what I want to do.
"That's why I work hard and why I play tennis: to try and win these tournaments. I
think I've got a good chance of doing it."
Long considered the player most likely to break Roger Federer and Nadal's domination
of grand slam tennis, 22-year-old Murray has struggled to fulfil his potential - and
the hopes of a nation desperate for Britain's 74-year drought in men's majors to
end.
Richly talented and tactically superior to most of his rivals, Murray has had to
watch in frustration as younger peers Novak Djokovic and Juan Martin del Potro
gained their own membership to the grand slam champions' club.
But the Scot believes he's been knocking on the door since losing to Federer at
Flushing Meadows 16 months ago.
"After the US Open in 2008, when I reached the final there, won against Rafa and Del
Potro, that was really when I started to feel like I could compete at the very
highest level of the game," Murray said.
"I'd worked really hard physically after I lost to Rafa at Wimbledon that year
because I realised I needed to."
Fitness will no doubt be a key in Murray's semi-final with the 14th-ranked Cilic,
who has required 22 sets and more than 18 hours of toil to reach the last four with
epic wins over Australian teenager Bernard Tomic, US Open champion Juan Martin del
Potro and American seventh seed Andy Roddick.
Murray, on the other hand, has breezed into the semi-finals without dropping a set,
spending just 10 hours and one minute on court in doing so.
"Obviously I feel fresh. I don't know how he feels," said Murray.
"From my side, I feel good physically. That's not going to be an issue for me in the
match."
Murray leads Cilic 3-1 head-to-head and puts little credence on the Croat's last-up
victory in New York, where the Scot was hindered by a wrist injury.
"I think that I can win the match," Murray said.
"Regardless of what happened at the US Open, if I play well, focus hard and
concentrate, then there's no reason why I can't beat him again."
Cilic, 21, is riding a 10-match winning streak after opening 2010 with a fourth
career triumph in Chennai.