Awesome Andy Murray finds strength to bring down 'The Wall'

The 23-year-old will face close friend Novak Djokovic on Sunday bidding to go one better than last year, when he lost to Roger Federer, and end Britain's 75-year wait for a men's singles Grand Slam champion.

Murray said: "It's a personal dream of mine to win a Slam and the historical thing is not something I thought about. But, I don't want be so worked up I play a stinker of a match."

The Scot was in desperate trouble in his semi-final, having to save a set point that would have put him 2-0 down against the world No7 who is known throughout the sport as The Wall because he gets everything back.

However, the Scot overcame a leg injury he suffered in the second set to fight back and finally celebrate a hard-fought victory after three hours and 46 minutes.

Murray headed straight into an ice bath to negate the injury which he does not believe will seriously affect his challenge against Djokovic, who has been the British No1's rival since their days as under-10 players.

They have recently become even closer friends, training through the Hopman Cup in Perth which took place earlier this month.

"Novak and I are pretty similar in terms of experience, although he did win the Australian Open in 2008," said the 23-year-old. "We are very good friends and practised for four or five days together in Perth and so there aren't going to be any secrets in how we will play against each other. I know it is going to be a brutal match.

"In the US Open Final against Roger [in 2008] I didn't really know what was going on and it went so quickly. It was a bit better last year here in Melbourne. I hope this one against Novak will be even better but he is playing really well. I'd rather be in the final than sitting at home watching Rafa and Roger. I haven't played Novak in a tournament for two years but we're good friends and I hope it's the start of a real rivalry."

Many will see this final as a clear indication of a changing of the guard with Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer's domination of the Slams now under threat from a group of players headed by Murray and world No3 Djokovic.

Djokovic holds a 4-3 career advantage over Murray but the Scot has won their last three matches with the most recent being the final of the Miami event in 2009. This is Djokovic's second successive Slam final having lost to Nadal in New York.

If Murray is correct with his prediction about the brutality facing him on Sunday then Ferrer has done him a great service by competing so hard in this semi-final and making his opponent dig deep.

Ferrer looked out of his comfort zone once Murray shifted away from a passive game and started to produce the kind of power his critics have been demanding for years.

Having delivered a ridiculously high error count in the first two sets, Murray started to look like the world No5 he is, a player capable of beating the very best.

Last year in Melbourne, he defeated Nadal in the last eight by using his big ground strokes and just when things looked critical for the British No1, he remembered how to deliver the killer shots in this match.

When he reflects on the statistics of this match, Murray will see that he made a ludicrously high 63 unforced errors which he offset with 60 winners. That contrasted starkly with the Spaniard who fired off 34 winners and the same number of errors in his second Slam semi-final.

What set Murray apart in this match was his ability to find an extra gear that allowed him to produce real power from the baseline mixed in with shots that very few players can produce.

However, his mother Judy, watching from the players' box, will have been annoyed that her son delivered such a yo-yo performance that could have cost him dearly.

The fourth set summed up what had gone before with Murray missing the kind of gentle volley at the net that children all over Britain would put away with ease at local tennis clubs.

Moments later he ran back to deal with a clever lob and instead of waiting for it to drop to a height that would make a return simple, Murray took it early to the complete surprise of his opponent and everyone in the Rod Laver Arena. It caught Ferrer flat footed and confirmed that on one side of the net was a top-10 player who can force errors all over court while on the other side was the magician Murray.

The 23-year-old knows he could have made the match so much easier if he had kicked on with his aggressive tennis while leading two sets to one and 2-0 only to let the momentum slip and then have to drag himself back into the correct groove to take care of Ferrer.

Murray said: "David is an unbelievable competitor and athlete. I was expecting a tough match and I got that. I decided to go for my shots in the second set and to be honest, I didn't realise I was facing a set point in that set. I thought it was actually 4-3 in games and so I was surprised when the umpire called 5-5 and not knowing probably helped me.

"That has happened before but not in a match like this and I hope it doesn't happen again!"

Asked about his injury, Murray said: "I think everyone has problems with their bodies at his stage of the tournament and mine was feeling it. I am going to jump into an ice bath now to help me recover. I did change the tension of my racket after the second set so that I could hit through the ball better and playing David is like facing a brick wall."

Murray made his night longer, as on three occasions he broke serve only to surrender it in the next game. He saved his most dominating tennis for the two tie-breaks which he won 7-2 on each occasion.

Ferrer said: "I had my chances but he served really well and also did very well in the tie-breaks."