“It’s really humid here, quite different conditions to Rio”, Murray said afterwards.
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Top seed Murray, running out of puff after claiming his second Olympic gold medal in Rio, grabbed his left hip in the opening game against Tomic, but soon settled in.
Kerber led 4-3 in the first set when rain forced the delay.
The Scot will play either Croatia’s Marin Cilic or Grigor Dimitrov – the latter is unseeded here – in Sunday’s final. “I’ve practised with him many times, so to some extent I have an understanding of his game, like he has of mine”.
“It was not so easy to turn it all around in the second set”.
Cincinnati is only his second title since winning the US Open two years ago.
Marin Cilic dominated Fernando Verdasco 6-3 6-1 and will play the sixth seed Tomas Berdych, a 6-3 7-6 (7/4) victor against Marcel Granollers. “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”. Obviously if I had been the second match that would’ve been even tougher.
The German came from a set down to beat Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro 4-6, 6-3, 6-0.
The Bulgarian will next face American Steve Johnson, who saved four set points as he advanced to the quarters over seventh seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France 6-3 7-6 (6).
Controversial Australia Nick Kyrgios was an early casualty, however, losing 7-6 (7/2) 4-6 7-6 (8/6) loss to Borna Coric and smashing three rackets in one changeover along the way. He now lies in tenth in the race to London, but a good run at the US Open will boost his placing.
“I was twice a break down in the third set, I didn’t play good tennis today”.
Hopefully this wouldn’t be a match that we would see until the finals in NY, but it is certainly a possibility that this would be a Round of 16, quarterfinal, or even potential final.
Third seed and 2015 finalist Simona Halep started with a 6-3, 6-1 defeat of Annika Beck.
“He had a good win today against Nishikori”, Murray said.
“But I went to sleep around 4am and woke up a little bit before 11am”.
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“There is still one match to go and I will not think yet about this”, Australian Open victor Kerber said after reaching her second final at the venue.
