Andy Murray tames Roger Federer in five-set thriller at Australian Open

Andy Murray showed his new mental strength after blowing the chance to serve out his Australian Open semi-final against Roger Federer yesterday by demolishing the Swiss in the fifth set.

The 25-year-old Briton had been two points away from a final against Novak Djokovic when serving at 6-5 in the fourth set only for Federer to force a tiebreak and then a decider.

Murray, however, has discovered a mental toughness in the last 12 months under coach Ivan Lendl and instead of brooding about losing the set the Scot sat quietly, while Federer took a toilet break and figured out what he had to do at the start of the fifth.

The focus worked and Murray raced out to a 3-0 lead then held on for a 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 6-7 (2-7), 6-2 win in four hours to set up the final showdown with world number one Djokovic tomorrow.

"To be honest, I was just trying to think what I'd done to get to that point, and I was just trying to focus on doing it at the beginning of the fifth set," Murray said. "You never know what's going to happen. The only thing you can do is play the right way, go for your shots when the opportunity's there, and hope that it pays off.

"You just need to try and be focused for as much of the match as possible [and] the beginning of the fifth set was the part that I was most pleased with."

Murray is one of the few players to have a winning career record against Federer, but had faced him three times in grand slams and lost each match.