MURRAY MARCH
China win has him in sight of No 1 Djokovic
NOVAK DJOKOVIC remains a long way in front as world No 1, but it may not be long before he starts to hear Andy Murray’s footsteps creeping up behind him. The 29-year- old Scot is trying to chase his Serbian rival down and moved closer yesterday by winning the China Open — his fifth title of the season and the 40th of his career on the ATP Tour.
Murray’s latest victim was Grigor Dimitrov, the flamboyant Bulgarian who produced his usual range of extravagant shotmaking but not enough consistency to derail his opponent in Beijing.
Jo Konta’s earlier defeat meant that there was not to be an unprecedented British double at a tournament of this size, but Murray delivered with a 6-4, 7-6 victory that took a shade under two hours.
These are the kind of bread and butter events you need to win in order to reach top spot — Djokovic has won in Beijing six times — and it puts Murray back on track after he showed signs of fatigue at the US Open and the subsequent Davis Cup semi-final.
The world No 2 took a break after Glasgow and looks suitably refreshed for the last leg of a season which will end with the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 Arena next month.
When the new rankings come out this morning he will still be 3,695 points behind Djokovic in the official listings, which are based on results over the past 12 months. However, if this season is looked at in isolation the lead is a less significant 1,555 points, and there are plenty enough left to play for this year for the situation to shift substantially before tennis’s brief hibernation.
Djokovic rejoins the fray this week for the Masters level Shanghai event, which offers 1,000 points to the winner, having missed Beijing citing an elbow injury.
He has played sparingly since winning the French Open and his form has been patchy by his stratospheric standards. However, the Serbian has an outstanding record in recent autumns, so it would be foolish to assume there will not be a strong revival.
Murray was just happy to have rediscovered some of his best form, the last sighting of which was in the US Open fourth round when he hammered a below-par Dimitrov. ‘It was a great week for me,’ he said. ‘Today’s match was very high level and Grigor fought really hard to the end.
‘I’m very happy with the way I played the last couple of matches. It has been the most consistent year of my career. I will look forward to Shanghai now.’
Since losing the final of the Madrid Open at the start of May he has amassed a 44-4 match record, encapsulating titles won in Rome, at Queen’s, Wimbledon and the Olympics before yesterday.
Dimitrov has suffered some dismal losses this season and only made it through to the final after his semi-final opponent, Milos Raonic, was forced to withdraw with an ankle injury.
But his form has picked up since he teamed up with Murray’s close friend and former assistant coach, Dani Vallverdu.
In charge of Murrayy has been Vallverdu’s longngterm replacementt Jamie Delgado, with h Ivan Lendl still there.
The Bulgarian is one of the most talented ballstrikers around but is still prone to the dips that prevent him from making the leap into thehe very highest echelon.
Murray’s first servee was erratic as he struck out on it, but his second serve was solid enough to make sure that he held on to an early break to take the first set.
In a match that was packed with wonderful rallies Dimitrov committed a host of unforced errors to be broken at 2-2 in the second set. Murray looked to be cruising at 5-3 but Dimitrov ran off 11 straight points to win three games to get to 6-5, but in the tiebreak Murray was by far the more composed and he tootook it 7-2. HHe was awarded the enenormous golden tropphy, and as he is still ddue to play Shanghai, VVienna, the Paris Masters and London it opens up a range of possibilities for what iis left of the 2016 seseason. KKyle Edmund celebratebrated his breakthrough into theth world’s top 50 by coming through the qualifying event for Shanghai and this morning he was due to face Argentina’s Federico Delbonis in the first round.