The 12th-seeded Cilic, who has struggled to recapture the form he showed in winning the 2014 U.S. Open, produced a dominant serve and booming groundstrokes in a 6-4 7-5 victory.
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Raonic was starting to find the pace as his shots became more aggressive and that helped him to hold his serve despite the best efforts from the Brit to get another break.
“I’m very proud of this week”, he said.
Murray said he is also feeling the effects of playing a lot of tennis in a short period of time.
“I didn’t feel too exhausted yesterday in the evening”.
“And because I’ve won a lot the last few months, that’s something that has been good, especially this week for sure”. But I certainly didn’t expect to get to the final when I arrived here.
“I think if I got off to a better start maybe could have done a bit better”.
Andy Murray notched up his 21st and 22nd consecutive victories to reach the finals of the Cincinnati Masters.
The pair have met five times this year, with Murray triumphing on every occasion.
Some Murray miscues led to another break two games later.
Murray is mounting a strong bid to displace Novak Djokovic from the No. 1 ranking.
That being said, Jonas Bjorkman who had been in Murray’s corner has joined Cilic’s team and although it is early days and Cilic is more than aware of what Murray brings to the table, the Swede was able to offer some advice.
“This week is going to be remembered, it’s really, really something special”, said Cilic, who had seven aces and broke Murray three times.
Kerber took control after a 33-minute rain delay in the first set and beat Simona Halep 6-3, 6-4 in humid, windy conditions, putting her within reach of the world’s top ranking.
Williams has led the WTA rankings for 183 consecutive weeks, the second-longest such stretch. A third match point arrived after a forehand victor by Murray, but this time, the top seed was determined to close the match and so he did when he hit a volley victor to book his spot in the final. Now, there is no avoiding it. Meanwhile, the Croat escaped Grigor Dimitrov 7-5 in the third set.
“One match away, still a long way to go”, she added.
It would be Kerber’s first title in Cincinnati – she lost her other finals appearance in 2012. She had also beaten Kerber in their four matches on hard courts this season, although Kerber won at Wimbledon.
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Two-times Cincinnati victor Murray, playing with energy and excellence from sideline to sideline, broke Raonic again in the ninth game to close out the first set.
