“I thought I was going to have a good chance if I played well”, said Cilic.
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The Croatian, who did not win his semifinal over Grigor Dimitrov until almost 1:30 am Sunday morning due to rain delays, ended with seven aces and broke Murray three times.
“I was serving really well with one racquet, so I stayed with it the entire match, and was switching on my return games to see if I could improve there”.
Cilic managed to hold his nerve and serve out the match for only his third win in 14 attempts against Murray, who will now turn his attention to looking to repeat his 2012 US Open success when this year’s competition gets under way on August 29.
Fresh from his Olympic victory in Rio, the Scot motored through the tournament in the USA to a re-match of the 2016 Wimbledon final where he beat Canadian Milos Raonic 6-3, 6-3 in their semi final clash.
For Murray, it could be suggested that perhaps it was a game too far, having played an average of more than one match a day over the previous fortnight.
Cilic’s win was his third against 11 losses to Murray.
Momentum mounted for Pliskova on a sunny day as she lifted the trophy after hitting 24 winners. I didn’t feel too exhausted yesterday in the evening. I went to sleep around 4:00 and woke up a little bit before 11:00. I was playing aggressive nearly without mistakes.
The Czech player triumphed 6-3, 6-1 for her seventh career title. She finished with seven aces and five breaks of Kerber.
The 136th US Open gets under way next Monday.
“This season I won my first grand slam, everything what’s happened in the last months is just incredible”. It’s obviously disappointing when you get to the final and don’t win, but it was a very, very positive week considering everything.
Marin Cilic entered the court convinced to compete against Andy Murray, with a positive mentality that surely helped him in the key moments.
Former US Open victor Cilic ended Briton Murray’s 22-match winning streak with a straight-sets win on Sunday and jumped up five places in the rankings to ninth.
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Two-time major champion Stan Wawrinka moved above his injured fellow Swiss Roger Federer to become the new world number three.
