World No. 2 Andy Murray continues to make a push for the numero uno ranking by adding yet another title. The Briton emerged victorious at the 2016 Shanghai Masters on Sunday with a 7-6(1), 6-1 victory over the 15th seeded Roberto Bautista Agut in 1 hour 36 minutes.
This is Murray’s third triumph at the Shanghai Masters and his 41st career title overall. This is also the sixth title of what has self-admittedly been his most consistent season. The other big highlights of Murray’s 2016 include winning the Wimbledon Championships and the Olympic gold for the second time.
With this win, the World No. 2 also extends his match winning streak to 11. Last week, he won the China Open title for the first time in his career.
Murray’s break point conversion stands out
Murray made a dominating start only to see the 15th seeded Roberto Bautista Agut make a comeback in the first set and force a tie-break. The Spaniard has lately been playing some of his best tennis and reached his career’s maiden ATP Masters final after upsetting the World No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals on Saturday.
He showed some of that confidence during the summit clash when he clawed his way back from a breakdown. As the second seed served for the set, Bautista Agut came up with some scintillating display to level the set at 5-5 before forcing a tie-break.
However, the Scot found his form there and raced through the breaker to take it 7-1.
With the first set in the bag, there was no stopping Murray in the second set. There was a temporary blip, though, from the three-time Grand Slam champion who was broken back to 1-2 after going up 2-0. But he soon restored order and made in-roads into his opponent’s serve in the very next game to lead 3-1.
Agut too helped Murray’s cause by conceding consecutive double faults in the fourth game. He could never recover from it as Murray grew stronger with each game. The second seed struck twice more and then comfortably served out the title.
Murray raised his game on the biggest points of the match and had a 100 percent conversion rate (4/4) of break points that proved to be a crucial difference-maker in this contest.
