Monday, August 17, 2009

MURRAY IN FINAL

Britain's Andy Murray completed a superb week by fighting back to beat Juan Martin del Potro in the final of the Montreal Masters.

The 22-year-old Scot defeated the world number six from Argentina 6-7 (4-7) 7-6 (7-3) 6-1 for his 13th career title, and fourth at the elite Masters level.

By reaching the final, Murray had guaranteed that he will move to second in the new world rankings on Monday.

He heads to Cincinnati next week to defend the title he won last year.

Following that is the US Open where Murray reached last year's final, only to be beaten by world number one Roger Federer.

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But the British number one has put any thoughts of going one better at Flushing Meadows on the back burner.

"I feel like I've got a good chance of doing well at the US Open, but each week is different and I'm not going to get too far ahead of myself. I'll just focus on Cincinnati," Murray said.

Despite becoming the first Briton in 128 years to lift the Canadian title, Murray considered breaking the duopoly of Federer and Nadal a bigger achievement, though he clearly enjoyed his success in Canada.

"I've won a couple of Masters now, so it still feels great, but the number two - maybe because it's something different - that means maybe a little bit more, but winning a tournament here is still great," he added.

Del Potro was playing in his first Masters 1000 final and for much of the second set looked like taking the title, but Murray's superior fitness played a huge part as he outlasted the 20-year-old in the hot conditions.

After a cagey start that yielded just one break point in the opening 12 games, Murray appeared to just have the edge going into the tie-break, but Del Potro made the breakthrough with a surprise chip-and-charge return to lead 5-4 and two good serves gave him the set.

Murray then won a gripping game at the start of the second by converting his fourth break point when Del Potro put a backhand wide, but he let a 30-0 lead slip in the following game to hand his hard-earned advantage straight back.

Del Potro had beaten Murray for the first time in four meetings on clay in Madrid last time out and has been in tremendous form, winning in Washington last week and extending his unbeaten run to 10 matches in Montreal.

The momentum was certainly with him as the second set progressed and when Murray missed two more break points in game nine, the Argentine was on the brink at just a game away from the title.

Finally, and with perfect timing, the Murray serve began to click into gear and he held his nerve superbly to force a second tie-break, despite clearly being unhappy when Del Potro called an injury time-out for treatment to his shoulder.

Some brilliant scrambling from the Briton earned him the crucial break for 5-3 in the tie-break and he quickly levelled the match from there.

That effectively ended the Del Potro challenge and, as Murray's game went from strength to strength, the Argentine's legs appeared to have gone beneath him.

Murray swept into a 4-0 lead and, despite losing one of the breaks when a now free-swinging Del Potro connected with a few returns, the new world number two sealed victory with an ace after two hours and 42 minutes.

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