Murray on verge of greatness

Andy Murray produced what was considered to be the best performance of his short career to bring to an end Rafael Nadal's period of world dominance and earn a date with the previous No 1 Roger Federer in the final of the US Open. The Scottish youngster, who has won three titles this year and six in total, has already enjoyed many days of celebration on his travels but nothing could compare with the unbridled joy of halting what has been in recent months a Nadal juggernaut and securing his first appearance in a grand slam final due to be held yesterday evening - the early hours of the morning in the Emirates.

Murray went into that match with a 2-1 career record in previous meetings with Federer, most recently at the Dubai Championships in March. Whatever happens in the Arthur Ashe stadium in the delayed finale to what has been a tremendous US Open, Murray will leave New York in high spirits having marked his elevation to fourth in the world rankings with a magnificent conquest of Nadal. The 6-2, 7-6, 4-6, 6-4 victory in a semi-final that spanned two days tasted all the sweeter in view of Nadal's record of beating Murray in all five of their previous engagements, most emphatically in the quarter-finals at Wimbledon earlier this year, and Murray gave the result enormous significance.

"It's awesome to beat him, a great feeling," he said. "It was tough losing to him five times in a row so to avenge those defeats in such an important match was great for me." Murray, 21, has come a long way since avoiding the bullets of the maniac Thomas Hamilton which killed 16 of his fellow pupils and one teacher at a primary school in his hometown of Dunblane 12 years ago. He is uncomfortable talking about that massacre, from which his elder brother Jamie, a title-winning doubles player, also escaped and until recently was equally unwilling to discuss an array of other subjects.

That earned him a reputation of surliness, a description he disliked and was keen to shake off. He blamed previous communication difficulties on immaturity. "Once you get older, you start to understand how the press works a bit better," he said. "When I first came on the scene at Wimbledon in 2005, I had done very few press conferences. "I had never played in front of a lot of people before. I was used to playing in futures events and stuff.

"All of a sudden I was the centre of attention at the biggest tennis tournament in the world. "It's very different to what I was used to, so it took me some time to come to terms with it. "I'm not someone who likes celebrity life. I like to just relax with my friends and family. "I don't go out my way to do a lot of press stuff. I found it tough at the start because there was a lot of press requests and what have you.

"So I had a few problems early on in my career, but I think I'm dealing with it much better now. I think you get used to it." Whether he likes it or not, Murray is a celebrity in his homeland as British tennis followers yearn for somebody to emulate Fred Perry's last home victory at Wimbledon back in 1936. Tim Henman, who reached six grand slam semi-finals but could not make the step up, and Greg Rusedski, beaten in the final of the 1997 US Open, went close to satisfying that desire.

Murray is urging his fans to be patient, believing his best is yet to come. Physically much stronger now than he was a year ago, thanks to a punishing training regime, he believed he is still two years short of his peak. "I think there are many things that I can improve on," he added. "One of the key things this year has been mentally I've got much, much better, and that has made a big difference. Then physically, I can still get stronger.

"I think when you play more matches and get more experience in the big situations you understand what things you can improve and what breaks down a little bit and that you're going need to work on. "I'm only starting to get the sort of big match experience this year." He used all of that experience to telling effect against Nadal when the pair resumed their rain-interrupted battle with Murray leading by two sets and Nadal a break up in the third.

It seemed that the rain might have saved the Spaniard as he resumed much more positively than he had been the previous evening and duly served out for the set but Murray was undaunted, despite being broken early in the fourth set as Nadal looked about to draw level. Murray retrieved that break in the sixth game and seized his big chance with Nadal serving at 4-5, chasing down a poor Nadal drop shot on match point to make the decisive backhand passing shot and wallow in the acclaim of a captivated 23,000 crowd.

@Email:wjohnson@thenational.a