ANDY MURRAY RETURNS TO NUMBER 2 AFTER DEFEATING NISHIKORI AT ROGERS CUP

Written by: Staff on 16th August 2015

ANDY MURRAY RETURNS TO NUMBER 2 AFTER DEFEATING NISHIKORI AT ROGERS CUP

epa04885680 Andy Murray of Great Britain celebrates his victory over Kei Nishikori of Japan during their men's semi-final singles match at the Rogers Cup Open ATP tennis tournament in Montreal, Canada, 15 Aug 2015. Nishikori lost. EPA/ANDRE PICHETTE |

Andy Murray was in a hurry to book his spot in his third Rogers Cup title match, routing Kei Nishikori 6-3, 6-0 in Saturday’s semi-finals. With the win, the 28 year old is projected to move ahead of Roger Federer for World No. 2 in the Emirates ATP Rankings on Monday, entering the Top 2 for the first time since August 2013.

“It’s nice to get back there,” said Murray. “I did it the first time here. It’s nice to get back there, especially after everything I went through last year with the surgery and dropping out of the Top 10, a lot of questions being asked about how my game was physically and stuff.

“It’s good to get back close to the top. I’ll keep working hard and try to get that one spot higher.”

The second-seeded Scot, who secured his place in the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals the night prior, was ruthless on return, converting six of 11 break points in the 65-minute affair. He broke Nishikori in six of seven service games, capturing 20 of 25 points on the Japanese’s second serve. Murray extended his winning streak in ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events to 10 straight, having hoisted the trophy in Madrid earlier this year (d. Nadal).

The pair exchanged breaks midway through the first set and Murray would secure a third break of serve in the opener to take a decisive 5-3 lead. In the second set, he earned an initial break from 30/0 down, taking the ball early and not allowing Nishikori any rhythm off the ground. He would win 12 of the last 13 points to clinch his spot in the final opposite Novak Djokovic.

Djokovic owns a 19-8 advantage in the FedEx ATP Head2Head, having claimed eight straight decisions since the 2013 Wimbledon final.

Murray has won two titles at this Masters 1000 event, in 2009-2010. He defeated Juan Martin del Potro in ’09 and retained his crown in beating Federer the following year. He now owns a 5-1 lead over Nishikori, having not dropped a set in two meetings this year.

“I think I’m more tired,” admitted Nishikori. “Everything was sore these couple of days. Today it got a little bit worst so I couldn’t really move 100 per cent.

“Especially after the first set, I was feeling it more and more. At the beginning of the first set I was okay, but after that I wasn’t the same player.”

( Courtesy of the ATP and Original Link – http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/news/montreal-2015-saturday-murray-nishikori )

Topics: Andy Murray, Atp World Tour, Kei Nishikori, Montreal, Rogers Cup, Tennis News

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10sBalls_com says:

August 16, 2015 at 10:56 am

-@andy_murray RETURNS TO NUMBER 2 AFTER DEFEATING @keinishikori AT @rogerscup- http://t.co/5R2V5eBAGn #tennis #andymurray #RogersCup #ATP
ElenaFoundation says:

August 19, 2015 at 3:45 am

@andy_murray returns to no 2 after win at #rogerscup (news via @10sBalls_com) http://t.co/Kf8eRIxsUT