Murray takes 1st China Open title with win over Dimitrov
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E-mail CNTV, October 10, 2016
The top seed Andy Murray was taking on resurgent Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov in the final with the Scot in search of his fifth trophy this season and the 40th title of his career. But it would not come easy against Dimitrov who looked mighty impressive seeing off Rafael Nadal in the quarter-finals and with a walkover in the semis due to a Milos raonic injury, he would come in the fresher player.
But Murray in the white shirt had not dropped a set in the Chinese capital all week. And the 29-year-old gets off to a great start on Sunday night with this beautiful backhand passing shot en route to breaking Dimitrov in the first game.
The Bulgarian would get a rare break opportunity of his own in the sixth game when Murray puts a bit too much spice on a forehand and sends it wide, and the voluble Brit curses his error.
But the world number 20 would be unable to convert the break, and when he hits the net, Andy is out of trouble with a 4-2 lead.
On set point, Dimitrov returns wide and Murray takes it 6-4 as his fans show their support.
The second would stay on serve until the fifth game when Dimitrov fires a forehand long and Andy picks up a break.
But with Murray looking to serve it out, the Bulgarian fights back and breaks Murray at love when the Scot sprays this volley well wide.
It would go to a tiebreak that is dominated by the Brit who now has match point. Dimitrov has him on the defensive but sends this shot long and it's all over.
A major milestone for Murray with his 40th career title and first in Beijing. And he will be a good bet to follow it up with another victory at the Shanghai Masters this week.
"Obviously I never expected to win that many tournaments, when you first come on tour, you don't expect to win one, but as you get older and, you know, experience winning, you want to continue doing that and I'm glad I managed to get to 40, it's been, you know, the best year in my career and you know, next target is try to get to 50, which is going to be hard, but I'll go for it," Murray said.
