• Australian Open

Seven reasons for Murray to fear Berdych in Melbourne

Andy Murray has lost his last two matches against Tomas Berdych © Getty Images

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Andy Murray may have cruised past Australian wonderkid Nick Kyrgios and started to look like the grand-slam winner he is but the numbers, courtesy of ESPN's Stats and Information Group and IBM, don't quite point the way to more glory for his Australian Open semi-final against Tomas Berdych on Thursday:

• The British No.1 has faced Berdych 10 times, but has lost their last two meetings and trails 6-4 overall. Among players Murray has met at least eight times in his career, the Czech is one of only three to have a winning record over him (Djokovic and Nadal are the others)
• Berdych has not dropped a set in this tournament and has held 93% of his service games (Murray has lost one set and has an 89% service game success rate), winning his last 45 service games
• Murray will have to be on his guard during open play as Berdych has hit 221 winners (compared to 190) already
• Despite facing a similar number of break points, the No.6 seed has been broken almost twice as many times: Murray - 19 break points faced, nine lost; Berdych - 18 faced, five lost
• Berdych has won a higher proportion of points at the net (79%) and from the baseline (53%) than Murray (76% and 50%)
• Berdych's fastest serve of 137mph is marginally faster than Murray's 133mph and with 63 aces, the Czech has smashed down 13 more unreturned serves than the Briton
• Murray has been largely on his game but has still made more unforced errors (133) than his semi-final opponent (125)

And if Murray still gets the better of Berdych ...

• The odds are stacked against him triumphing in the final: Nobody in the Open era has won the Australian Grand Slam after losing three finals (Marat Safin is the only player to lose two finals in Melbourne and then win the title)

For more AusOpen 2015 commentary by the numbers follow #GameChangersIBM on Twitter

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