By Erik Gudris | Saturday, August 20, 2016
Andy Murray earned his 22nd straight win since defeating Milos Raonic at Wimbledon as he beat the Canadian again to reach the Cincinnati final.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Top seed Andy Murray, in a rematch of the Wimbledon final, once again defeated Milos Raonic at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati.
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Murray enters the men’s final having now won his 22nd straight match that includes his recent gold medal run at the Rio Summer Games.
Saturday’s semifinal between Murray and Raonic was briefly delayed by rain that impacted matches all week. Rain even played a factor in Raonic’s opening service game. Falling behind 15-40, Raonic had to wait several minutes as another brief shower ended. When he came back to the court, Raonic netted a volley handing Murray an early lead.
Both players delighted the crowd midway through the set with an incredible point featuring several great gets.
Raonic went on to hold a break point but overcooked a backhand return. Murray eventually held to extend his lead to 5-3. The Wimbledon champion then broke Raonic in the last game of the set to take it 6-3.
In the second set, Raonic fired down his usual big serves. But the Canadian also tried to force the issue with his forehand by either opening up the court with it or striking point-ending winners. Still, Murray often proved to have the last answer in many of their rallies.
Raonic overall held three break points in the match, but failed to convert often by making routine errors. Murray made his move late in the set with more impending rain on the way.
At 4-3, Raonic threw in another double fault and then elected not to hit a short Murray lob that fell in on the baseline. That soon lead to Murray holding 15-40. Raonic netted another forehand giving Murray the key break for 5-3.
The last game was not inevitable at all despite Murray serving his way to 40-15.
Murray hit a double fault then missed a forehand to bring things to deuce. Murray reacted by kicking a ball that sailed high and almost the umpire in the head.
Another Murray error gave Raonic a break point that he failed to seize by netting a forehand. Back at deuce, slight rain started to fall that briefly stopped play again as the lines were dried. When play resumed, Murray struck a forehand winner that gave him his third match point.
Murray finally closed things out with a short volley winner to seal the 6-3, 6-3 win. Murray now will seek his 19th consecutive ATP Masters 1000 title.
Despite the loss, Raonic feels he is getting closer to finally figuring out a way to defeating Murray once again.
“I think it's going to come down to certain things. I got to obviously serve much better than I did today. Today I also did a better job of creating opportunities on his serve that I didn't make count. I had three break chances and three second serves; I put the ball in twice. No, I put the ball in once on second serves. That is not a formula of success by any means. It's going to come down to a few important points, playing them better, and obviously executing better than I did on my end of things when it comes to my service games than I did today.”
Murray, who admits he’s fighting some fatigue, feels the confidence in winning so many matches is helping him get through.
“I mean, I think it helps in terms of the choices that you make on the court,” Murray said “Like I didn't get broken the last couple of matches, and when I was in difficult situations I made good choices. That's helped keep the matches shorter. If you're a bit lower on confidence, regardless of how fresh you are, if you haven't played loads of matches you make sometimes bad decisions in those moments. And because I've won a lot the last few months, that's something that has been good, especially this week for sure. I've needed it to be because I haven't been feeling perfect. I've managed to get through the matches pretty good.”
Murray will play the winner of the next semifinal between Grigor Dimitrov and Marin Cilic.