“He served a couple of doubles that first game and I managed to get the break, and then had the momentum from there”, said Murray, who registered his fifth win against Raonic this season. “Winning hard matches helps with the confidence and allows us to play our best on important points”.
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“If you’re a bit lower on confidence, regardless of how fresh you are, if you haven’t played loads of matches you make bad decisions in those moments”, Murray added.
“I had some pretty good wins along the way”. “I didn’t feel too exhausted yesterday in the evening”.
Speaking of his meeting with Raonic, Murray said on the ATP’s official webite: “Yeah, tough match obviously”. Murray advanced to his 7th straight final and 19th at the Masters 1000 level.
The pair have met five times this year, with Murray triumphing on every occasion.
The Canadian, despite sending down three aces in the final set, had no real answer to Murray’s clinical counter-punching and the match was over inside an hour and 30 minutes.
Murray has had a hectic two weeks, taking to the courts in Cincinnati immediately after his run to singles gold in Rio. He now lies in tenth in the race to London, but a good run at the US Open will boost his placing.
In the second set, one of the best returners in tennis history barely got a sniff as Cilic continued to serve with enormous power and accuracy, while his eventual tally of 24 winners was three times that of his opponent. It worked and I was making nearly every return, but I still preferred the other racquet for serves and volleys.
“That is not a formula of success by any means”.
“I think I’m playing my best tennis just now”. Wawrinka now plays Grigor Dimitrov, a victor over 16th seed Feliciano Lopez 5-7, 6-3, 7-6 (8/6).
Cilic took the court some 14 hours after leaving in the wee hours of Sunday following his three-set semi-final win over Grigor Dimitrov that followed a two-hour rain delay.
The second set certainly felt a lot more competitive, with neither being able to get close to each others serves, before Murray capitalised on the first break point of the set.
Murray said he had trouble at first adjusting to the new balls before settling and winning nine of the final 11 games.
Nadal won the opening game of the match before Coric won the next ten games, racing to a 6-1, 4-0 lead on the 2013 champion.
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Despite the late start and finish to the second semifinal, the men’s final is still scheduled for 4pm ET.
