LONDON (AFP) – Andy Murray stormed into his third Wimbledon final as the Scot crushed Tomas Berdych 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 on Friday to set up a title showdown with Milos Raonic.
Murray gave a majestic performance on Centre Court and needed just under two hours to ensure his return to the All England Club final three years after becoming the first British man to win Wimbledon since Fred Perry in 1936.
The 29-year-old made just nine unforced errors, in contrast to 30 by the befuddled Berdych, who was powerless to halt Murray’s progress to an 11th Grand Slam final appearance – a milestone which took him ahead of Perry as the British man with the most major finals on his CV.
‘‘I’m very happy. To make the Wimbledon final is a good achievement. I’ve got one more to go on Sunday,’’ Murray said.
‘‘The older you get you never know how many chances you will get to play in a Grand Slam final.
‘‘It helps to have experience to deal with the nerves. You learn from those matches in the past against some of the best players of all time.’’
With Canadian sixth seed Raonic in his first major final after a shock win over Roger Federer, world number two Murray will be strongly favoured to clinch his second Wimbledon crown and third Grand Slam title in Sunday’s final.
But Murray said: ‘‘Milos is playing some of the best grass-court tennis of his career. I’m aware I’ll have to play very well to win.’’
Murray will hope it is third time lucky this year after losing the Australian and French Open title matches to Novak Djokovic.
Having faced Djokovic in seven major finals and Federer, who beat the Scot in his first Wimbledon final in 2012, in the other three, Murray finally gets to meet an opponent from outside the traditional superpowers.
