Ben Sutton
at Melbourne Park
He may have failed to match his efforts at the previous two Australian Opens, but Andy Murray will leave Melbourne better placed to win his first Grand Slam title than he ever has before.
Murray bowed out in the semi-finals after a marathon 3-6 6-3 7-6 (7-4) 1-6 5-7 loss to world No.1 Novak Djokovic in one of the greatest matches ever played on Friday night.
And although he reached the past two finals at Melbourne Park, on both occasions he failed to fire a shot with Roger Federer in 2010 and Djokovic last year cruising to straight-sets victories.
That led many to question whether the Scot, who has spent the entirety of his career in the shadows of Federer, Rafael Nadal and Djokovic, will ever break through for his first major title.
While there is no doubting his ability to match it with the top three, it is often the mental side where the 24-year-old falters.
It looked like a similar story when he trailed Djokovic by a set and a break in their semi-final on Friday night with nothing going right in the first set and half.
But he never changed his new-found on-court attitude and his aggressive tactics eventually paid off as he won six of the next seven games to level the match at a set apiece.
Suddenly he looked the more likely to win and after edging an epic 88-minute third set in a tiebreaker he was well and truly in the box seat.
Djokovic turned the tide to send the match into a fifth set and while he carried his momentum into the decider, it was Murray's response when trailing 2-5 that might just be his coming of age moment.
After a tough service hold, Murray played the game of his life to break Djokovic to love and get the final set back on serve.
He then breezed through his service game and earned himself two break points after winning 13 out of 15 points. He wasn't able to secure the break despite having another chance later in the game and then after nearly five hours on court finally succumbed.
While the loss will be tough for Murray to digest over the coming days, he knows it will serve as an important confidence boost and the belief that he can become the best in the world.
"I feel now like, yeah, I'm ready mentally. Physically I can still get better, for sure. But, yeah, I mean, in comparison to how I played last year, it was much, much better," he said.
"You know, tonight's match was important for many reasons."
"Obviously I wanted to win first and foremost. But, you know, also sort of after last year, the year that Novak's had, I think there's a very fine line between being No.1 in the world and being 3 or 4."
"I think that gap, I feel tonight I closed it. My job over the next two or three months is to surpass him and the guys in front of me."
"So take a lot of hard work, and hopefully I can do it."
On the evidence of the Australian Open semi-finals it is quite clear that the top four players are well clear of the rest of the field.
All that remains is for Murray to join the top three as a Grand Slam champion and few would bet against that happening in the coming years.