In his first final in the Masters 1000 series, Marin Čilić reached his first triumph on Sunday at the Cincinnati tournament by defeating the first seeded and double Olympic champion, British Andy Murrac with 6-4, 7-5
Čilić thus became the third Croatian tennis player to win the Masters 1000 series tournament, after Goran Ivanišević did so twice (Stockholm 1992 and Paris-Bercy 1993) and Ivan Ljubičić in Indian Wells in 2010, Sportske Novosti reported on August 22, 2016.
Marin played an excellent match. With two breaks he created a 5-2 advantage in the first set and clinched the first section of the match. In the second set the outcome was settled in the 11th game. Murray managed to reach 0-40 and another advantage, but his fifth chance for a break in that game was turned into a decisive advantage by Čilić. Serving for a great trophy Marin left Murray without a point and ended the match with a backhand winner after 94 minutes of play. It was their 14th mutual duel and only the third win by Čilić in which he presented a level of tennis equal to the one two years ago against Tomaš Berdych, Roger Federer and Keijo Nishikori on his way to the triumph at the U.S. Open.
American concrete once again turned out beneficial for the best Croatian tennis player who achieved his first career title on the surface, 2008 in New Haven, his first Grand Slam title at the U.S. Open in 2014 and his first Masters 1000 trophy.
Čilić’s excellent match stopped a win series by the Brit who did not know of defeat since the finals of Rolland Garros, where he was defeated by Novak Đoković. Murray then lined up 22 victories and titles in Queens, Wimbledon and the Olympic tournament in Rio de Janeiro. Murray was close to clinching his 40th ATP title.
Thanks to this win and his 15th career title, first in 2016, Marin Čilić will be the ninth ranked tennis player in the world on the new ATP list. He leaves Cincinnati with 1,000 more points and 834,700 USD.
The triumph of Croatian tennis players in Cincinnati was rounded up by Ivan Dodig who paired up with Brazilian Marcelo Melo and defeated Dutch Jean-Julien Rojer and Romanian Horia Tecau with 7-6 (5), 6-7 (5), 10-6 for their second consecutive Masters trophy, fourth in total.
