Onwards and Upwards

Andy Murray could be forgiven for waking up in Oz earlier today - and comparing himself to Real Madrid.

Because no matter how well the Men from Madrid play - they just can't seem to overcome their arch-rivals Barcelona.

Even when they play well and even outshine the Catalan club for a while - as they did during the week - Real Madrid always seem to come off second best.

Although - to be fair - the Madrillenos are favourties to win the Spanish league title this year.

But Andy Murray has no need to be hard on himself this time around - because the young Scot  crossed a threshold in his five-set, five-hour, semi-final match with Novak Djokovic - in the Australian Open yesterday.

Murray traded blows and swapped shots on equal terms with his opponent as the epic contest see-sawed back and forth - he never gave up and clawed his way back into the match on two occasions - before finally succumbing to the Serbian.

Djokovic was the better player on the day - but only by a very small margin - and for the first time ever - Murray looked to me that had the mental toughness to win a Grand Slam Final.

So it has to be onwards and upwards - 18 months ago Djokovic was in the same position - but he found a way of 'upping' his game by 5 or 10 per cent - when he needed it most.

Andy Murray finally seems to have convinced himself - that he can do the same.