Olympic champion Andy Murray won his first China Open title after beating Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 7-6 (2) in the final in Beijing on Sunday. With this win, Murray bagged his fifth title of the year, which also includes Wimbledon and the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Rio, in what was his ninth final of the season.
Murray was on top throughout the match and was never really tested by Dimitrov. The first set saw Murray dominating and outplaying Dimitrov during crucial points. The second set was a tight affair with both men giving it their best and the set going to a tie-breaker. However, Murray eventually won it 7-6(2).
Murray said, “It’s been the most consistent year of my career, getting to the latter stages of most of the events I have played. Today’s match was very high-level. Grigor fought right to the end and made it extremely tough to finish it in two sets. It’s been an excellent week and I’m very happy with the way that I have played the last couple of matches. I will look forward to Shanghai now.”
Murray continues his quest to top the world rankings as he narrowed the point advantage of Novak Djokovic. According to the new rankings that were released on Monday morning, Murray is 3,695 points behind Djokovic, who sits on top with 13,540 points. The duo will again face off this week at the Shanghai Masters event, which offers 1,000 points to the winner.
Djokovic's form has dipped since winning the French Open title. The Serb was beaten in the early rounds at Wimbledon and Rio 2016. Even though he reached the US Open final last month, he lost to Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka.
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