Top seed and two-time Cincinnati champion Andy Murray advanced to the Western and Southern Open final for a third time, defeating Milos Raonic 6-3 6-3.
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Third-seeded Nadal, showing fatigue following his play at the Olympics that included a gold medal in doubles, was a step slow and paid the price against 19-year-old Borna Coric of Croatia, who reached the quarter-finals with a 6-1 6-3 win.
Murray is mounting a strong bid to displace Novak Djokovic from the number one ranking.
Murray only had three days to recover between his win over Juan Martin Del Potro on Sunday and comfortable victory over Monaco on Wednesday, who he also beat on the way to gold in Rio.
Just a week after retaining his Olympic title in Rio, Murray lost his serve twice in the first set and, despite breaking back, fell behind.
“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 said. That’s something I’ll need to adjust to tomorrow as well.
“He had a good win today against Nishikori”, Murray said.
“I really didn’t expect to be here [in the final in Cincinnati]”.
Having flown to the USA from Rio on the same private jet as Rafael Nadal – who complained of injury and tiredness after his early exit in Cincinnati – Murray was playing in a final while hundreds of his fellow Olympic gold medallists were still in Rio ready to party at the closing ceremony.
Murray comes in to the final with a commanding lead in head-to-head history, having won 11 of 13 matches against 12th seed Cilic. “Obviously today didn’t go how I would have wanted”.
With the win, Murray maintained his unbeaten head-to-head record against the world number 21, now at 5-0.
Murray started brightly, holding to love in his opening two service games and forcing Cilic to save a break point, before the Croat broke to go 3-2 up.
He’s around a [1.22] chance today and for me the best value wager here is to side with a correct score wager in set one.
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Cilic served out the match in his first try, converting his second championship point and unleashing a celebration that was every bit as emphatic as his performance.
