The Sports Lowdown For All Your News and OpinionsAndy Murray’s winning streak of 22 matches has come to an end as Marin Cilic produced a powerful display to stun the Brit 6-4 7-5 and clinch the Cincinnati title. The world number two, coming off an exhausting summer of success, found the final one match too far as the Croat’s powerful serve and groundstrokes saw him eventually secure his first ATP Masters title.
In the opening set, Cilic initially struggled to cope with the windy conditions as Murray held a break point in his opponent’s first service game, but the Croat produced some heavy hitting to survive early on. However, at 2-2, it was the Brit’s turn to face some pressure but his opponent’s powerful groundstrokes was simply too much for Murray, as Cilic ripped a forehand winner to seal the break before emphatically consolidating it for a 4-2 lead. The Croat remained solid as Murray appeared sluggish in the baseline rallies, and the Brit conceded the double break after netting a volley. Even though Murray capitalised on a few errors from his opponent to gain one break back and reduce the deficit to 5-4, Cilic held his nerve impeccably and wrapped up the set at the second time of asking to take the lead.
As the second set unfolded, Murray improved and started holding serve much more comfortably, but he could not fashion any opportunity on Cilic’s serve, as the Croat continued to dictate wherever possible with his huge groundstrokes to keep the scoreline tight. At 5-5, Cilic was presented break points due to Murray’s erratic shot-making, and even though the Brit fought back to save them all, the Croat eventually prevailed and seized the decisive break when his opponent netted a forehand. Now serving for the match, Cilic sustained his incredible form as Murray was unable to respond, and the Croat crushed a backhand winner down the line to close out the victory.
Cilic will now head to the US Open looking to build further momentum and will draw confidence from his previous grand slam win at Flushing Meadows in 2014, whilst Murray will take a deserved break before competing in the last major of the year, following his gruelling summer in which the Brit won the Queen’s title, Wimbledon and retained his Olympic gold medal.
On the women’s side, Angelique Kerber fell short in her bid to replace Serena Williams as the new world number one, suffering a 6-3 6-1 defeat in the final of the Western and Southern Open to Karolina Pliskova.
