CINCINNATI — Former US Open champ Marin Cilic snapped Andy Murray’s 22 match win streak Sunday to claim his first ATP Masters 1000 title with a 6-4, 7-5 win at the Cincinnati tournament.
The 94-minute victory for the 27-year-old Croatian marked a career breakthrough as he earned his first Masters title on his 71st career attempt.
“This week is going to be remembered, it’s really, really something special,” said Cilic, who had seven aces and broke Murray three times. “I look forward to the US Open in a couple of weeks. I hope we can continue with good form.”
Cilic accomplished the feat on little rest, as he did not leave the court after his semifinal win over Grigor Dimitrov until 2:00 a.m. Sunday morning due to rain delays.
Olympic silver medalist Angelique Kerber lost to Czech Karolina Pliskova 6-3, 6-1 in the women’s final of the joint WTA-ATP tournament.
The defeat ended Kerber’s chances of replacing Serena Williams as the No. 1 ranked player in the world.
It was the German’s the second defeat in a final in just over a week after losing to Monica Puig in the gold medal Rio match.
“I tried my best, but sometimes you have days where it’s not working so good,” Kerber said.
Cincinnati is only Cilic’s second title since winning the US Open two years ago.
Murray has been on a tear this season, winning grass titles at Queen’s and Wimbledon before triumphing a week ago over Juan Martin del Potro at the Olympic final.
But the accumulation of tennis finally proved to be too much for the Scot, who played his 14th match in 15 days dating back to the Games.
Momentum mounted for Pliskova on a sunny day as she lifted the trophy after hitting 24 winners.
The Czech, who now owns seven career titles and stands 3-4 against Kerber, claimed the opening set in 32 minutes and needed 62 minutes in total to complete her role as spoiler.
Pliskova is the first Czech to win the Cincinnati trophy. She finished with seven aces and five breaks of Kerber.
Mirza tops doubles rankings
India’s Sania Mirza took sole possession of the WTA doubles No. 1 ranking after teaming up with Barbora Strycova to beat former partner Martina Hingis and Coco Vandeweghe 7-5, 6-4 in Sunday’s Cincinnati final.
The 29-year-old will move alone to the top of the rankings, after her and Swiss Hingis ended their highly successful partnership last month as joint number ones.
The dominant pairing claimed 14 titles, including three Grand Slams.
Keys withdraws
Madison Keys withdrew from the Connecticut Open after injuring her neck Sunday during a practice session ahead of the tournament she planned to use as a tuneup for the US Open.
Keys said she was hitting a forehand return when she felt pain on the right side of her neck. “I probably hit it late. ... As soon as I finished the stroke I knew that I did something,” she said. — Agencies
