Australian Open
13th - 26th January 2014
Melbourne Park, Australia
Last updated: 23/01/2013
Andy Murray by Getty Images
Andy Murray has reached the semi-finals in Melbourne Park for the fourth year in a row after a straight sets win over Jeremy Chardy.
Murray, who is yet to drop a set at this year’s Australian Open, overcame the Frenchman 6-4, 6-1, 6-2 in under two hours on Rod Laver Arena.
"I started the match pretty well I thought" said 25 year-ol Murray. "Then when he got a break back in the first set, I became a bit tight. He's a tough guy to play against because of the nature of his game and his style. He goes for a lot of shots and, you know, he can play a couple of games where he misses and then, you know, three, four games he's hot and he makes very few errors and puts you under a lot of pressure.
So, yeah, that's why it's tough to play against him. But I thought I did a pretty good job throughout the match. There were a couple of games I could have done a bit better on, but for the most part it was good."
World No.3 Murray will play either Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga or Swiss Roger Federer in the final four.
Katy Dunne was in action in the third round of the girls’ singles but was defeated 6-3, 6-4 by Russian Elizaveta Kulichkova.
Lucy Shuker and Andy Lapthorne enjoyed a tremendous first day at the Australian Open Wheelchair Championships at Melbourne Park after Shuker reached her first Australian Open women's singles semi-final in three attempts and Lapthorne won the first of his three round-robin quad singles matches.
Shuker made a slow start against former world No.1 Daniela di Toro of Australia, but after bowing out of the first Grand Slam of the year at the quarter-final stage in both 2010 and 2011, the world No.7 battled back to take the second set and then came from behind in the final set to complete a 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory.
World No.6 Nick Taylor forced second seed Lapthorne into a first set tie-break and looked to have the first set under control as he took a 5-1 lead. But the World No.4 battled back to take the tie-break 7-5 in their quad singles round-robin match.
Lapthorne and Shuker off to winning start at Australian Open
19 year-old Sloane Stephens caused the upset of the championships by stunning hot favourite Serena Williams. The 29th seed came from a set down to beat the five-time champion 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 and will next face top seed Victoria Azarenka in the semi-finals.
Roger Federer battled into the semi-finals with a thrilling five set victory over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. The second seeded Swiss eventually came through 7-6(4), 4-6, 7-6(4), 3-6, 6-3 after three hours and thirty four minutes to clinch his place in the last four.
French Open and US Open champions Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci moved into the final of the Women's doubles with victory in the first semi-final on day ten. The top seeded Italians saw off Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina 6-2, 6-4 and now await the winner of Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua versus Varvara Lepchenko and Saisai Zheng.