Andy Murray feels he is "ready mentally" to take his game to a new level despite his five-set loss to Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open.

Murray pushed the world number one all the way with a performance which displayed little of the flaws evident in his sobering defeat to the Serbian in last year's final.

And while he fell short in his bid to reach a third successive title-decider in Melbourne, he is confident he is heading in the right direction.

"Everybody matures at different ages and different rates," he said.

"I feel like I'm now ready mentally. Physically I can still get better for sure. But in comparison to how I played last year, it was much, much better.

"Tonight's match was important for many reasons. Obviously I wanted to win first and foremost. But I think there's now a very fine line between being number one in the world and being three or four. I think I closed that gap tonight.

"My job over the next two or three months is to surpass him and the guys in front of me. It will take a lot of hard work but hopefully I can do it."

Djokovic eventually emerged victorious 6-3 3-6 6-7 (4/7) 6-1 7-5 but it was a match, all four hours and 50 minutes of it, which was ultimately decided by a few points.

Having hit back from 5-2 down in the fifth, Murray failed to convert three break points at 5-5. Djokovic then held and broke himself to win and advance to Sunday's final against Rafael Nadal.

"It was obviously a very good match," said Murray.

"I had the chance at 5-5, on one of the points I missed a backhand in the net.

"It was tough at the end, you come back then you get close to breaking so to lose is tough.

"But (I am a) different player, a different attitude to this time last year.

"I am proud of the way I fought."

Djokovic was relieved to have come through. Victory over Nadal would make him just the fifth man to win three consecutive grand slam titles in the open era following his victories at Wimbledon and US Open last year.

"It is difficult to describe, I was just trying to focus on very point," Djokovic said of his comeback in the last two sets.

"Andy deserves the credit to come back from 5-2 down, he was fighting, I was fighting.

"It was evidently a physical match, it was one of the best matches I have played, emotionally and physically it was equally hard.

"I am delighted to reach the final and what can be a bigger challenge than playing Rafael Nadal, who has been playing so well on this court.

"We have a lot of respect for each other but I am going to try to recover."