Cilic Edges Murray for Western & Southern Open Title

August 22, 2016 | By New York Tennis Magazine Staff

Marin Cilic won his first ever ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event Sunday, upsetting Andy Murray 6-4, 7-5 in just over 90 minutes in Cincinnati for the Western & Southern Open title.

After finishing his semifinal match at 1:35 a.m. against Grigor Dimitrov, Cilic, the 2014 U.S. Open champ, returned to the court to earn his 15th tour-level title. Murray was playing in his 11th match in 15 days after capturing the Gold Medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

"I thought I was going to have a good chance if I played well," said Cilic. "I didn't feel too tired yesterday in the evening. It was obviously very difficult mentally. It was very humid on the court. We were sweating a lot, so a lot of up and downs, especially in the third set. I had to work out the positive and negative emotions and that took a bit of energy. I went to sleep around 4:00 and woke up a little bit before 11:00. That was enough to recover. I felt that I played really good tennis today."

Murray came into the match with a commanding 11-2 head-to-head record over Cilic.

"Obviously today it didn't go how I would've wanted, but I certainly didn't expect to get to the final when I arrived here,” said Murray. “I had some pretty good wins along the way. Today there were tough, tricky conditions with the wind.”

Both Cilic and Murray are headed to Flushing Meadows for the start of next week’s 2016 U.S. Open.


New York Tennis Magazine Staff
Centercourt
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