He now lies in tenth in the race to London, but a good run at the US Open will boost his placing. Just when Murray was two points away from the final, the rain appeared again but after a short suspension, it was chose to play again.
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The match was actually bookended by rain, with the slippery lines an area of concern. A trademark lob over the big man and a cross-court passing forehand victor got the crowd on their feet as the Scot brought himself back to 3-3 in the first set. The Scot was happy that he could manage a final appearance without rest and was now looking to get some much needed downtime.
Only one of their last half dozen opening sets against each other has gone past 10 games and they don’t tend to play tie breaks too often, with Cilic winning convincingly the times he has beaten Murray.
“I think if I got off to a better start maybe could have done a bit better”. I had three break chances and three second serves; I put the ball in twice.
“That is not a formula of success by any means. I did quite a few things well today”, Raonic said.
“It’s a big win for me, first time in a Masters 1000 final”, Cilic said.
“I’m very proud of this week”, said Murray. I was hitting a lot of big serves in important points and I was definitely very mentally strong in that second set.
Rafa Nadal is also in the event after winning gold in the Rio doubles and he came through 6-1 7-6 (7/4) against Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas. Playing during the day tomorrow will be my first match during the day. “Every player will tell you the conditions are different in the daytime”. That’s something I’ll need to adjust to tomorrow as well.
Murray has won 11 of 13 matches against 12th seed Cilic. Muguruza was overwhelmed with just seven winners and 23 unforced errors.
He will now take on his opponent from the Wimbledon final – Milos Raonic – after the Canadian beat Dominic Thiem.
On the victory, the Dunblane ace said: “I knew that coming straight from the Olympics I was going to be exhausted, but I’ve still managed to win”.
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He should have enough in the tank to defeat either.
