Clinical Murray wins in Dubai for his first title of 2017
Andy heads for California on a high after first title in Dubai
ANDY MURRAY will swap one desert for another in the next 48 hours, buoyed by his first ATP title of the season after the disappointment of the Australian Open.
The world No1 will take the 16-hour flight to Los Angeles, having extended his lead at the top of the rankings with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Spaniard Fernando Verdasco to win the Dubai Duty Free Championships.
Murray’s destination is Indian Wells, next door to Palm Springs, and he will be heartened by the general good working order of his game.
The key to this title was coming through the 31-minute tiebreak against Philipp Kohlschreiber in which he saved seven match points to survive into the semi-final.
Victory against Verdasco took 74 minutes, and it meant another first for Murray as the only Brit to have won the Dubai event in its 25year history.
‘It’s always nice to win any tournament, especially one you haven’t won before,’ said Murray, who agreed the extraordinary battle with Kohlschreiber was the turning point.
‘When you get through matches like that it settles you down for the whole tournament. There have been quite a few late finishes for me, but it’s been a tricky week for a lot of the players, with the rain and things. ‘Once I got going I was moving well and I finished strongly. Maybe the last couple of matches I didn’t start as well as I would have liked. But it has been the same for all of the players. ‘I’ve got a 16-hour flight, although it’s nice that it’s direct. I’ve struggled a bit in Indian Wells in recent years so this has given me good momentum going into the coming stretch and hopefully I can play well there.’
It was also Murray’s first title as world No1. ‘Winning is special regardless of your ranking, but maybe there’s a bit more pressure and expectation now,’ he said when being presented with the silver trophy, in the shape of a dhow.
The rankings work on a 12-month roll-on roll-off basis. As Murray won few matches this time last year — he took a break for the birth of his daughter and then floundered in America — he is only likely to improve his tally at the forthcoming Masters level events at Indian Wells and Miami.
His world No1 ranking is only likely to start coming under pressure when the clay court season begins in April.
But even then he ought to hold on to it until at least just prior to the French Open, depending on what challengers such as Novak Djokovic come up with.
Murray served three early double faults to be broken in his first two service games against Verdasco (inset), but it was not long before he was tucking into the stuttering serve of the world No 35.
The 29-year-old Scot broke back for 3-3 and did not look back from there, going ahead when he broke again for 2-1 in the second set and effectively wrapping it up by doing so again for 5-2.
There was the possibility of a Murray double with brother Jamie and partner Bruno Soares playing overnight in the doubles final of the ATP event in Acapulco.
In the singles final in Mexico, Rafael Nadal faces American Sam Querrey. The Spaniard thrashed Marin Cilic 6-1, 6-2 in yesterday’s semi-final.