VIENNA— Andy Murray closed in on the No. 1 ranking by winning his third straight ATP title at the Erste Bank Open on Sunday.
The Scot can overtake Novak Djokovic atop the ATP rankings next week if he wins the Paris Masters and the Serb doesn’t reach the final.
“I get a step closer with every win but it’s still a long way from here,” Murray said. “From two to one seems a small jump in a way but it’s the hardest one to make. To go from 100 to 50 is more spots but is a lot easier.”
In Sunday’s final, Murray defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-3, 7-6 (6) for his personal-best seventh title of the season, and 42nd overall. Djokovic has also won seven events this year.
“I was thinking more about how you are going to win the match rather than what it would mean if you did win it. But obviously it’s nice to win my seventh tournament,” Murray said.
“A lot of them have come in the last few months. After the Australian Open I struggled a little bit for a couple of months but the last few months have been very good.”
Murray extended his unbeaten streak to 15 matches after also winning in Beijing and Shanghai. “I think I played my best tennis of the tournament today. That’s pleasing, obviously, as you want to improve as an event goes on,” he said.
The 15th-ranked Tsonga, who was the 2011 champion, appeared in his first final of the season, which has been marred by adductor and left knee injuries.
“It was a positive week for me. It was very good to be in the final,” Tsonga said. “I played good tennis. It was nice to play five matches in a row. It hasn’t happened many times these last couple of months.”
Murray advanced to the final after defending champion David Ferrer pulled out with a left leg injury, while Tsonga saved a match point in his 2 1/2-hour semifinal against Ivo Karlovic on Saturday.
Murray, who also won in Vienna on his only previous visit in 2014, dominated Sunday’s final from the start. He raced into a 3-0 lead by taking 14 of the first 19 points of the match.
He avoided break points in his games, and missed a set point on the Frenchman’s serve at 5-2 but clinched the opening set the next game with his second ace.
Murray conceded just two points on his way to a 2-0 lead in the second set but started to struggle with his first serve as his percentage dropped to 18 halfway through the second set.
He hit a forehand long on the only break point for Tsonga to help the Frenchman level at 4-4. Murray missed his first match point in the tiebreaker as he netted a forehand return, but closed out the win on his second chance with an ace.
Triumphant Cilic desperate
to keep London spot
In Basel, Switzerland, red-hot Marin Cilic heads to Paris determined to hang on to his qualifying spot for the ATP year-end finals after defeating Kei Nishikori to lift the Swiss Indoors title.
The Croatian, 28, triumphed 6-1, 7-6 (7/5) on Sunday over his higher-ranked opponent in a repeat of the 2014 US Open final, where he also defeated Asia’s best player.
Cilic, ranked 12th in the world, currently holds the last of the qualifying spots for the World Tour Finals in London but will face a battle this week at Paris Bercy in the final event of the regular season to keep the place.
Eight players will take part in the prestigious London showpiece on Nov. 13-20.
“Paris will be deciding everything, I want to finish the regular season in a good way and hope to refresh myself in the next couple of days to be ready again,” Cilic said, after earning his 16th career title from 27 finals.
“I now have the first 500 series title in my career. I’m adding it to all my other trophies. It shows me that I’m in a good way, I’m playing very well.
“I had pressure all week fighting to qualify for London. But it was a great week for me, I played some good tennis.
“I feel great, it was a tough week, there was a lot at stake. I came up with some great tennis despite the pressure.”
World No. 5 Nishikori, who already knows that he is on his way to London for the third straight year, refused to make excuses.
“I didn’t feel I was in there all the time. If I could have won the second set, maybe something would have changed,” he said.
“In the end, I didn’t feel comfortable and didn’t feel the balls well today. It was a combination of his good tennis and the fact that I was not at 100 percent. In the second set it was close, I had a couple of set points but couldn’t convert.”
Cilic ended with a modest six aces, producing his last one at just the right moment to earn a pair of match points. He put a forehand long on the first but claimed the match — and the title — when Nishikori hit a double fault on the second. — Agencies
