Andy Murray’s 22-match winning streak was brought to end on 21 August with Marin Cilic shocking the Scot to win the 2016 Cincinnati Masters.
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But Murray – the latest member of the “600 Club” having reached the ATP World Tour match-wins milestone against Anderson – could not be too downhearted.
In other quarter-final action, Croatian 12th seed Marin Cilic advanced when compatriot Borna Coric retired with a knee injury after dropping the first set 6-2 while unseeded Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov beat American Steve Johnson 7-6 (8) 6-2.
“I felt really, really good on the court this week – obviously it shows on the scoreboard”. But this week has been hard for me coming from Rio. “Andy was starting to play a bit better, and, I mean, definitely huge win against Andy who has been in a great run last couple months”.
“I’m in another final now. I’m looking forward to a few days’ rest now”.
Raonic had finally forced a third break point for the match as a result, but indicative of his night, drove Murray’s relatively tame second serve into the net. He owns four titles in 2016 and has defeated Raonic five times since January.
Murray broke in an opening game interrupted for 15 minutes by raindrops, with Raonic contributing two double faults.
Milos Raonic, who lost to Murray in the Wimbledon final, will tackle Japanese qualifier Yuichi Sugita after beating John Isner 7-6, 7-6.
The world number two won his fifth match over the Australian and stands 32-1 since losing to Novak Djokovic in May in Madrid. 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.
Australian Open victor Angelique Kerber, meanwhile, squandered the chance to end Serena Williams’ 183-week reign as women’s world No1 as she lost the Cincinnati Open final to Czech Karolina Pliskova.
Williams has been the number one for 183 straight weeks.
Cilic:”I thought I was going to have a good chance if I played well”.
“If it happens, it will be unbelievable”.
Kerber stands 4-2 over Pliskova. The consistency of the Brit persisted as he scored another hold to love, proving that he wasn’t slowing down, but his opponent was using his serve to avoid facing any break points. “I’m so happy to have beaten such a tough player. I feel like I took that all in and adapted well”, Raonic told the ATP Tour Web site.
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“I was feeling my rhythm and believed in myself”.
