Murray beaten in Cincinatti final

Olympic champion Andy Murray saw his winning run ended at 22 games with a 6-4 7-5 defeat by Marin Cilic in the Western & Southern Open final in Cincinatti.

The Scot went into the showdown having won his 50th match of the year on Saturday when he beat Milos Raonic – the Canadian he defeated to claim his second Wimbledon title in July – 6-3 6-3 in the semi-finals.

Murray, playing his 14th match in 15 days following his run to the title in Rio, showed signs of fatigue in the opening set as Cilic broke twice to lead 5-2.

The top seed, who previously won the tournament in 2008 and 2011, stayed alive by breaking back in game nine but the Croatian, who had come through a latenight encounter with Grigor Dimitrov in his semi-final, served out to win the set in 41 minutes.

Neither player could make an impression on the other’s serve in the second set until the 11th game when Cilic had five break points.

He eventually sealed the break and after Murray had a heated discussion with the umpire, safely held his serve to love to clinch the title in 94 minutes.

Angelique Kerber missed the chance to end Serena Williams’ long reign as world No 1 after suffering a surprise straight-sets defeat to Karolina Pliskova in the women’s final.

A victory in Cincinnati yesterday would have seen Kerber climb to the top of the WTA rankings, replacing Williams who has held that spot for 183 successive weeks.

However, despite winning four of her previous six meetings with Pliskova, the 28-year-old German could not see off the challenge of the Czech 15th seed, who claimed a 6-3 6-1 win.

Pliskova, 24, paid tribute to Kerber after clinching her sixth WTA singles title: “Angie’s had an amazing week and has done a great job all year.

“I know she was playing for the world No 1, so I think you deserve to be No 1, but maybe next time.”

Australian Open champion Kerber was broken five times in the final and made 32 unforced errors, twice the amount of her opponent.