Andy Murray enjoys stunning win against Stan Wawrinka to reach first French Open final
ByEurosport
Updated 03/06/2016 at 22:40 GMT
Andy Murray will aim to become the first British man to win a French Open final since Fred Perry in 1935 after completing a superb 6-4 6-2 4-6 6-2 win over defending champion Stan Wawrinka in the semi-finals at Roland Garros.
The Scotsman's win means he has now reached every Grand Slam final in the sport, and he will bid to win the third leg of a career Grand Slam against world number one Novak Djokovic in Sunday's final.
The last British man to reach a final was Bunny Austin in 1937.
Like Murray, Djokovic is bidding for his maiden French Open success after the world number one enjoyed a 6-2 6-1 6-4 win over Dominic Thiem in Friday's other semi-final.
"I am extremely proud. I never expected to reach a final here," said Murray.
"I knew today if I wanted to win I would have to play one of my best claycourt matches. I played one of my best matches today."
Murray lost to Djokovic in the final of the Madrid Masters last month before beating the Serbian player a week later at the Rome Masters to raise the prospects of a French Open title to go with his US Open (2012) and Wimbledon (2013) wins.
Murray dropped serve only once in the match, in the 10th game of the third set, and was simply too good for Wawrinka, who was left confused by the variety, inventiveness and power hitting of Murray from deep in the court as an opponent who clubbed Djokovic in last year's final was simply overwhelmed despite the Parisian crowd attempting to inspire a comeback.
In enjoying his first win over Wawrinka on clay, the tournament's second seed Murray came close to losing his first service game in the first, which he took after five deuces before winning the set in an epic 10th game in which Wawrinka held three break points.
With Wawrinka's trademark booming backhand slightly misfiring, Murray assumed control, breaking twice to win the second set before the Swiss picked his pocket to take the third.
Murray closed out the match in the fourth set with two further breaks of serve with Wawrinka well and truly beaten when he was broken for a second time in the seventh game of the fourth set.
Third seed Wawrinka ended the match with 43 unforced errors against the Scot's 22 with Murray converting five of 15 break points against his opponent's one from five.
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