Preparing for the US Open in one week, Croatian Cilic claimed his first Masters 1000 series title in 71 appearances with a 6-4 7-5 victory over top seed and world No.2 Murray on Sunday.
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In a rematch between this year’s Wimbledon finalists, Murray, who won that showdown for a second All England Club title before claiming Olympic gold in Rio, was dominant on his way to clinching his 22nd straight win.
Yesterday’s wager in Cincy was dead in the water virtually from the first game, as Milos Raonic opened up against Andy Murray by donating his serve with a couple of double faults.
This victory was only Cilic’s third triumph in 14 attempts against Murray and now both players will turn their attention to the US Open which begins on August 29. “I’ll try to take the positive things from the match and from the last few weeks to NY”, she said in reference to the upcoming US Open, the year’s final Grand Slam Tournament. I had to work out the positive and negative emotions and that took a bit of energy.
“I went to sleep around 4:00 and woke up a little bit before 11:00”, Cilic said. “That was enough to recover”. I hope tomorrow I’ll play a good match and I know I’ll have a good chance if I play well.
“Today I felt that the serve was a big factor in the game”, he said. I was hitting a lot of big serves in important points, and I was definitely very mentally strong in that second set. Andy was starting to play a bit better, but it’s definitely a huge win against him.
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“Because I’ve won a lot the last few months, keeping the matches shorter is something that has been good, especially this week for sure”. Standing at 2-2, it was Murray on serve and in this game the Scotsman lost a point on his serve for the first time since the start of the set, but this didn’t stop him to be up 3-2. Obviously today it didn’t go how I would’ve wanted. “I’ve managed to get through the matches pretty well”. I’m feeling good on the court. “Today there were tough, tricky conditions with the wind”, Murray said at the post-match press conference. “I have to focus on a match against a tough opponent”.
