ANDY MURRAY WINS HIS 40TH TITLE WITH THE WIN IN BEIJING & NICK KYRGIOS CLIMBS TO 12TH IN RACE TO LONDON WITH TOKYO TENNIS TITLE AND WITH HIS MOM THERE

Written by: Staff on 9th October 2016

ANDY MURRAY WINS HIS 40TH TITLE WITH THE WIN IN BEIJING & NICK KYRGIOS CLIMBS TO 12TH IN RACE TO LONDON WITH TOKYO TENNIS TITLE AND WITH HIS MOM THERE

epa05577436 Nick Kyrgios of Australia holds the trophy after winning the men's singles final match against David Goffin of Belgium at the Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo, Japan, 09 October 2016. EPA/KIYOSHI OTA |

Andy Murray captured the 40th title of his career and his fifth of the season when he beat Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 7-6(2) in the final of the Beijing Open on Sunday. Murray failed to serve out the match late in the second set, but he recovered to dominate the ensuing tiebreaker and thus sealed the deal after one hour and 57 minutes.

“It was probably my best match of the week,” the second-ranked Scot assessed. “But my second serve tonight was probably the best part of my game. A lot of the unreturned serves came off second serves. Considering the conditions were fairly cold, I was still serving over a hundred miles an hour on some second serves. I felt using good variation on that shot, so I didn’t give him a chance to really attack me there and that was probably the thing that I did best tonight.”

“Andy’s pretty much the greatest player this year,” said Dimitrov. “He’s been winning a lot and has a lot of confidence. He obviously knows how to move well on the court. All the credit to him. I personally think I didn’t play a good enough match to rally with him throughout. Maybe the second set was a little bit better.”

Andy Murray (R) of Britain poses with the championship trophy after defeating Grigor Dimitrov (L) of Bulgaria in their men’s singles final of the China Open tennis tournament at the National Tennis Center in Beijing, China, 09 October 2016. EPA/WU HONG

With his 500-point title in Beijing, Murray is now just 1,555 points behind world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the 2016 race. There are still two Masters 1000s on the schedule–this upcoming week in Shanghai and then in Paris.

Both Nick Kyrgios and David Goffin have distant hopes of qualifying for the World Tour Finals and they squared off in the Rakuten Japan Open final on Sunday afternoon. Goffin came out on fire, but it was Kyrgios who ended up winning his third title of the season (and third of his career) with a 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 victory.

“It was tough; we had a lot of long rallies,” Kyrgios commented. “I thought the way I returned today got me a lot of opportunities. It was a high-quality match but I got lucky at times, as well. I played a very tough match against Gael Monfils yesterday, so it took me a little time to get into this match. David makes you feel like the court is very small. My serve got me out of trouble today.

“I enjoyed playing in front of the great crowd here. They’re very enthusiastic and very respectful. I have always loved playing in Japan.”

By virtue of his triumph, the 21-year-old Australian climbed two spots to 12th in the race to London. He is 50 points behind Goffin for No. 11 and 780 points back of Dominic Thiem for the all-important eighth position.

Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand.

Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships

Tokyo, Japan

RESULTS – SUNDAY, 9 OCTOBER 2016

Singles – Final

[6] N. Kyrgios (AUS) d [5] D. Goffin (BEL) 46 63 75

Doubles – Final

M. Granollers (ESP) / M. Matkowski (POL) d [2] R. Klaasen (RSA) / R. Ram (USA) 62 76(4)

KYRGIOS WINS THIRD ATP WORLD TOUR TITLE; GRANOLLERS/MATKOWSKI PREVAIL

– Nick Kyrgios saved 11 of 12 break points and fired 25 aces to secure his first ATP World Tour 500 title in Tokyo.

– The #NextGen star defeated fellow Emirates ATP Race To London contender David Goffin in three tight sets for his third ATP World Tour title.

– Kyrgios’ victory gives the #NextGen contingent five ATP World Tour titles this year, with Alexander Zverev and Karen Khachanov also lifting trophies.

– Goffin was appearing in his first ATP World Tour final of the season and sixth of his career (2-4)..

– Marcel Granollers and Marcin Matkowski won their first team title Sunday in Tokyo.

– For Granollers, it was the Spaniard’s 12th doubles title, while Poland’s Matkowski won his 17th in total.

Marcel Granollers (L) of Spain and Marcin Matkowski (R) of Poland smile as they hold the trophy after winning the men’s doubles final match against Raven Klaasen of South Africa and Rajeev Ram of the US at the Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo, Japan, 09 October 2016. EPA/KIYOSHI OTA

WHAT THE PLAYERS SAID

Kyrgios

“I played a very tough match against Gael Monfils yesterday, so it took me a little time to get into this match. David makes you feel like the court is very small. My serve got me out of trouble today.

“I enjoyed playing in front of the great crowd here. They’re very enthusiastic and very respectful. I have always loved playing in Japan.”

Goffin

“It’s not easy to break him, because he was hitting 215 km/h serve on the line. I was trying to guess which way he was going. But he can still ace you. I tried my best, and it worked until 5-4 in the final set.”

Matkowski

“We both speak good English, so it was not a problem to communicate on the court. I’ve always played the ad court on returns and Marcel likes to play on the deuce side, so that was easy to sort out as well.”

Granollers

“I was at home in Spain during the US Open and sent Marcin a text, because I was looking for a partner in Tokyo. He was still playing in New York and I was already out. I knew he is a great player, and I’m happy he accepted.”