Murray battles back

Andy Murray: Battles back to reach US Open semi-finals

Andy Murray booked his place in the semi-finals of the US Open with another hard-fought win in the Louis Armstrong Stadium, beating Marin Cilic 3-6 7-6 6-2 6-0.

The third seed rallied back from the precarious position of a set down and trailing 1-5 in the second to book a date with Tomas Berdych on Saturday.

Murray was broken twice in each of the first two sets, as he desperately struggled to regain the sort of form shown in his convincing fourth-round win over Milos Raonic.

Surface

There were more similarities to his laboured display against Feliciano Lopez in the third round, also played on the faster surface of Flushing Meadow's second court.

However, from the brink of trailing by two sets to love, the third seed reeled off six successive games before levelling the match on a tie-break.

Murray broke twice more in the third and cruised to victory without dropping a game in the fourth.

Britain's No.1 got off to the worst possible start, losing eight of the first nine points to slip to a 0-2 lead in an error-strewn start to the match.

He managed to break back in the seventh game but then gave his own serve away in the following game, allowing the Croat to serve out the first set.

Having been toothless in the first, hitting just three winners, Murray surrendered his serve a further two times to leave the 11th seed a game away from a two-set lead.

However, Murray stopped the rot with a hold before winning the following five games and then taking the tie-break 7-4.

Fortunes

That turnaround swung the momentum firming in Murray's favour with the crowd pouring in following the completion of Andy Roddick's career-ending match with Juan Martin del Potro.

The Scot started to hold with far more conviction and broke twice from his three break-points, hitting four aces and 10 winners.

With Cilic's spirit broken and Murray's confidence regained, the Scot breezed through the fourth set with little resistance to make the final four.

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