The race for the year-end No. 1 ranking is most definitely on at the World Tour Finals.
Matching Novak Djokovic’s defeat of Dominic Thiem on Sunday, Andy Murray cruised through his O2 Arena opener 6-3, 6-2 against Marin Cilic on Monday night. Murray fought off four of five break points and converted four of his own five break points before prevailing in one hour and 30 minutes.
Neither man could find his range throughout the opening set, but the Scot reduced his unforced error number from 14 in the first to just five in the second. He also fired nine winners in the second after recording only two in the first.
With the match never in serious doubt, the loudest ovation came before it began–when Murray made a grand entrance while being introduced as the new No. 1 player in the world.
“It was a great reception, obviously,” Murray assured. “(It was) a really, really good atmosphere tonight. Yeah, it was obviously nice to play in that stadium with the crowd like that. It obviously helps. After a long kind of few months, it’s nice to know that I’m going to be finishing the year playing in that sort of atmosphere. It helps you get up for the matches a bit more, as well.”
“Overall I felt I was not playing too bad,” said Cilic. “Just obviously maybe a different pattern of the balls. The hitting could have been better. Yeah, a little bit unfortunate to go 6-3, 6-2 down, where I felt it was much, much closer in the first set. (In the) beginning of the second, I had couple chances, as well.
“Unfortunately, that’s the way it is. Obviously (it’s) tougher to start straightaway with matches like these against the best guys. I’m not so used to it. That’s something I guess quite new for me. Most of the tournaments I’m playing them (in the) third (or) fourth round, at least. It’s a little bit different.”
[polldaddy poll=9580156]
[polldaddy poll=9580155]
Leave a Reply