Murray wins three titles in three weeks

Written by: Global Chick on 17th October 2011

Murray wins three titles in three weeks

Andy Murray of Great Britain returns the ball against Rafael Nadal of Spain during the finals of the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo, Japan, 09 October 2011. Murray won 3-6, 6-2, 6-0. EPA/EVERETT KENNEDY BROWN |

Andy Murray finished off the Asian Swing by winning a trio of trophies. The No. 2 seed defended his title at the Shanghai Rolex Masters 2011 by taking out David Ferrer of Spain in the final 7-5 6-4 on Sunday.

This win also means that Murray will overtake Swiss superstar Roger Federer as the World No. 3 in the rankings. “My goal for the last three-four months after the US Open was to try to finish as high as possible and win as many matches as I could. It’s obviously been a good start,” The Brit said. He added, “I’m still not guaranteed to finish at No. 3. I’m still going to have to win some more matches.”

The British number one started off his Asian trip with a win at the PTT Thailand Open in Bangkok where he defeated Donald Young in the final. He then travelled to Tokyo and took out the title at the Rakuten Japan Open Championships.

The first set of the finals consisted of three breaks of serve. Murray broke Ferrer in the first game but Ferrer broke straight back. Murray then broke the Spaniard in the 11^th game in the first set taking it out 7-5 in just under one hour. The second set followed in the same pattern with Murray breaking serve again in the fifth game.

“I was really happy with the way I stayed focused. It’s hard to explain. It’s almost you’d think the more matches you win, the less pressure you feel,” Murray said about his recent success.

Ferrer is the title holder of two tournaments this year Auckland and Acapulco. The World No. 5 has also been the runner up in Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Bastad. Ferrer is one of five players who have secured a spot at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London in November. “I enjoyed the week a lot. Here in Shanghai, I’ve had the best moments of my career, I reached the final here in 200 and again this year. I hope to win next year,” Ferrer said.

Max Mirnyi of Belarus and Daniel Nestor of Canada are the newly crowned doubles Champions at the Shanghai Rolex Masters. Mirnyi and Nestor saved two match points against Michael Llodra of France and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia before taking out the title 3-6 6-1 12-10.

The Shanghai doubles Champions have already qualified for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in November. This was Max Mirnyi’s 40^th career doubles title and it was Nestor’s 74^th career titles. This is their third title for the year after winning Memphis, TN and Roland Garros earlier in the year.

The Belarusian/Canadian team came back from a set down in today’s final. They broke serve twice in the second set to level the match one set all. They also saved two match points in the match tiebreak at 8-9 and 9-10. Mirnyi and Nestor will share $192 000 and receive 1000 ranking points.

Five teams have already qualified for the London event. The remaining three spots will be decided over the next couple of weeks. Teams ready to pack their bags and travel to London in November are:

Bob & Mike Bryan

Nenad Zimonjic & Michael Llodra

Daniel Nestor & Max Mirnyi

Mahesh Bhupathi & Leander Paes

Jurgen Melzer & Philipp Petzschner

Topics: Andy Murray, David Ferrer