Murray sweeps Anderson aside
ANDY Murray swept to a record-equalling fourth Queen’s Club title with a majestic 6-3 6-4 demolition of South Africa’s Kevin Anderson in yesterday’s final.
Murray joins John McEnroe, Boris Becker, Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt as the only four-time winners of the Wimbledon warm-up event in the Open era.
It was Murray’s third ATP title this year after his victories on clay in Madrid and Munich.
With 34 career ATP titles, including six on grass, Murray moves up to 18th on the Open era list – level with Arthur Ashe, Michael Chang and John Newcombe.
Even more significantly, it was Murray’s first title on grass since his historic Wimbledon triumph in 2013.
That career-defining success two years ago came after his third victorious campaign at Queen’s and, with Wimbledon just eight days away, Murray’s ruthless 64-minute rout of the world No 17 shows he is in the mood to mount a sustained challenge for a second All England Club crown.
After heavy rain forced his semifinal against Serbia’s Viktor Troicki to be suspended on Saturday, Murray knew he would have to do double duty to win the title.
He completed the first part of his hectic schedule in just over an hour, dispatching Troicki 6-3 7-6 (7/4) before heading back to the locker room for two hours’ recovery time.
Anderson was well rested after blitzing his way into his first Queen’s final with 34 aces against Gilles Simon on Saturday to take his tally for the tournament to 96.
He enjoyed notable victories over Hewitt and French Open winner Stan Wawrinka en route to the final.
But Murray had won four of his previous five meetings with Anderson and maintaining his 100% record in Queen’s finals proved no problem.
Meanwhile, Roger Federer won the Halle Open for a record-extending eighth time yesterday by beating Italy’s Andreas Seppi 7-6(1) 6-4.
Defending champion Federer, who has now won Halle more times than any other tournament, captured a fourth title this year after victories at Istanbul, Dubai and Brisbane to take his career haul to 86.
– AFP, Reuters
