Andy Murray outgunned Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 7-6(2) in the final of the China Open yesterday to claim his 40th career title.
Murray closed out the match in an hour and 57 minutes to draw closer in the rankings to world number one Novak Djokovic in the battle for the year-end top spot.
The Briton is now 1555 points behind Djokovic, who could not defend his title in China because of an elbow problem, with plenty of points up for grabs at the remaining events of the season in Shanghai, Paris and the Tour finals in London.
Murray broke Dimitrov’s serve in the opening game of the match, putting the 15th-ranked Bulgarian on the defensive as he made 21 unforced errors in the opening set.
In the second, both held their serve through the first four games until Murray broke Dimitrov at 3-2.
It looked like the Scot would serve for the championship but Dimitrov – who beat Rafael Nadal en route to the final – won the next 11 points, breaking Murray to love.
Pushed to a tiebreak, the three-time Grand Slam champion immediately seized back control, storming through the decider to claim his first title in the Chinese capital.
“It was probably my best match of the week,” Murray, who dropped just eight points on his first serve, told the ATP website.
“My second serve tonight was probably the best part of my game. A lot of the unreturned serves came off second serves. Considering the conditions were fairly cold, I was still serving over a hundred miles an hour on some second serves,” he added.
“It’s been the most consistent year of my career, getting to the latter stages of most of the events I have played,” Murray told Sky Sports after dispatching Dimitrov.
“Today’s match was a very high-level match. Grigor fought right to the end and made it extremely tough to finish it in two sets. I’m very happy with the way that I have played the last couple of matches. I will look forward to Shanghai now.”
Dimitrov had received a free pass through the semi-finals after Canadian Milos Raonic pulled out with an ankle injury, but was left overwhelmed by the Scot.
“I just didn’t feel that I had another gear,” Dimitrov told reporters after the match.
“Andy’s fighting pretty much every single point. You know you’re not going to get anything for free.”
“Andy’s pretty much the greatest player this year. He’s been winning a lot and has a lot of confidence. He obviously knows how to move well on the court. All the credit to him,” Dimitrov, who has lost three finals this year, said.
Murray has had a busy European summer, having reached the French Open final, secured a second Wimbledon triumph, and then successfully defended his Olympic gold medal in Rio. He is scheduled to play next in the Shanghai Masters this month.

Murray broke Dimitrov’s serve in the opening game of the match, putting the 15th-ranked Bulgarian on the defensive as he made 21 unforced errors in the opening set