Andy Murray Advances To Australian Open Semis: 5 Things We Learned in His Win

World No. 5 Andy Murray advanced to the semifinals of the Australian Open with 7-5, 6-3, 6-7 (3), 6-3 victory over Alexandr Dolgopolov on Wednesday.

Murray will meet David Ferrer in the final four after Ferrer (the seventh seed) upset an ailing Rafa Nadal in straight sets in the other quarterfinal in the top half of the draw.

While this gives Murray a fantastic chance to make the final of a Grand Slam for the third time, what did we learn from his performance against the Ukrainian?

     1. You can’t always outsmart crazy.

Dolgopolov was unconventional, and, especially for the first hour or so, Murray didn’t know exactly what he needed to do against him. Again in the third, Dolgopolov found a little bit extra just when Murray thought he was punching his ticket to the semi's.

Dolgopolov wasn’t afraid to mix things up, which seemed to rattle Murray. Dolgopolov was throwing in the sneaky quick-serve, bringing Murray to the net with drop shots, jumping into shots when he didn’t need to, running around his backhand and varying his first serve speed by anything from 98 mph to 131 mph.

It took Murray a while to figure out a plan of attack and that alone almost cost him the opening set.

On a more specific note, we learned that:

     2. Murray’s game revolves around his serve more than people think.

Murray did not serve well in the first set at all, just 44 percent, and there’s no doubt that his game took a hit because of it. The graphic below shows how Dolgopolov was very aggressive in consistently attacking the second serve from inside the baseline. Which, in turn, meant Murray started to take more pace of the first serve. The red dots are where he returned the first serve, while the black dots represent the second serve.

By contrast, in the second set Murray lost just two points on serve, both on the second serve, and Dolgopolov never ever looked like breaking.

     3. Pinpoint serving can beat Murray

We all know what a solid returner Murray is, but Dolgopolov came out with a smart service plan which paid dividends after a shaky start. Dolgopolov doesn’t have the fastest serve out there but he locates it well.

He also had that slice serve out wide in the deuce court that absolutely killed Murray in the first set. It clocked in at less than 100 mph, but took Murray into the doubles alley and outside the court, giving Dolgopolov an ace or an easy winner. Murray tried to attack the second serve, exactly as Dolgopolov was doing to him, but it looked as though the Ukrainian would "out-Murray" Murray.

     4. Murray has a forehand, too.

People rightly talk about the weapons Murray has on his backhand, but did anyone notice how clinical and efficient his forehand was against Dolgopolov?

Murray made very few errors off the forehand wing, and even though Dolgopolov returned his serves almost exclusively toward the ad court, Murray had no problem running around his often stronger backhand.

The image on the left shows where Murray was hitting the second point in rallies when he was serving. Even when Dolgopolov was returning it short, he wasn't afraid to keep going to this side. The image on the right shows Murray's forehands (red dots) and backhands (black dots). Murray was so comfortable with his forehand in this match that he hit more than three times as many forehands in the ad court as he did backhands in the deuce court.

Murray had a couple issues in the first and third sets when Dolgopolov played considerably better than the other two sets, but the problem wasn’t Murray’s forehand. If he can work both shots perfectly in unison, Ferrer will have his hands full.

     5. Don’t play drop shots against Murray.

This really should come with the caveat of “..unless you’re very good.” How many times did Dolgopolov telegraph his drop shot, only to loop in three feet over the net? He went to the well way too often, and Murray, with probably the best explosive speed of anyone getting to the net, had a field day picking of the bouncing balls every time.

Unless Murray is five feet beyond the baseline, or you have the touch to dink the ball inches over the tape, don’t try to fool him. He’s silly quick and he’ll beat you every time.