CINCINNATI // Andy Murray upset the Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic 7-6 7-6 to win his first Masters Series title. Murray could have won earlier but Djokovic survived four championship points when the Briton served leading 5-3 in the second set. He clinched the match in the tie-break on his sixth championship point.
Murray overcame the Serb with a fluent and imaginative display of ground strokes, showing he has the ability to climb up among the world's top three, producing his second victory over Djokovic in successive weeks. It was a victory which lifted the Scot from ninth to sixth in the world rankings. The defeat prevented Djokovic, already the winner of three of the four North American Masters Series titles in the last 18 months, from completing the quartet.
Djokovic had also ended the soon-to-be world No 1 Rafael Nadal's 32-match winning streak in their semi-final. This time, in the heat of the day, it was different. "I played in these conditions all week so maybe I was more used to it," Murray said. "There were lots of long, long rallies which took a toll and we were both tired at the end. "My Wimbledon win against [Richard] Gasquet gave me a lot of confidence and this will give me even more."
Djokovic set out to attack Murray, as he had Nadal, in an attempt to get flat attacks into the rallies to try to break up the Scot's varieties of pace and spin. But Murray was containing him well and began to grow in confidence. The Serb had to save a few break points but he began to mistime more often and from the middle of the set Murray was holding serve more easily. In the tie-break, Djokovic lost a point against serve immediately when he struck a backhand drive too long. He pulled a forehand wide to go two mini-breaks down, and lost the set when he tried to break up another sequence of drives from Murray and hammered that flat and long.
Djokovic then suffered the disappointment being unable to consolidate a break of the Scot's serve early in the second set. When Murray broke back for 2-2 and then broke again for 5-3 Djokovic looked increasingly uncertain, risking his heavy attacks less often. But in the crises, at match points down, he went for broke. Twice Djokovic saved them with uninhibited flat drives, once a Murray net cord landed long, then Djokovic saved another with an outrageous drop shot which took a net cord and landed on the line.
Although he bravely saved a fifth match point, Murray finished it off at the sixth attempt with a serve and backhand drive combination. * Reuters