Andy Murray lit up the tournament with his brilliant performance in the most humid conditions of the tour this year. Not dropping a set on his road to the final, the 21 year old has really shown maturity since his Wimbledon exit to Nadal. I feel if the final was against Nadal we would have seen the same result.

Murray has been under quite heavy criticism for both his on and off courts antics. He does like a moan on court which for a player of his ability, needs to be somewhat cut down to the minimum. His off court issues rose when he said he wanted any team but England to win the World Cup in 2006 and classes himself as “Scottish not British”. He later retracted these statements saying it was quite immature of him. The point is he is only 21 so you can understand a little arrogance from his point, and the fact that he is genuinely making an effort on his attitude is a positive sign for good things to come from him in the future.

The final was very classy. Djokovic for me is the best hard court player in the world. He has beaten Nadal and Federer on numerous occasion on the hard courts. That shows how good Murray’s victory was. The first set was brilliant, both players nearly identical to each other had some breathtaking rallies to watch. Murray had the edge on his serve as he dropped less points throughout the set. Djokovic’s motivation fluctuated quite a lot throughout a match which costed him dearly on some occasions. Also, he can leave himself a lot of work to do on his serves, he mentioned himself this is a large area for improvement. On came the tie-break and with Murray taking the first 4 points with some great shots down the line and a Djokovic double fault led Murray to take the set and the momentum.

He started well in the second set as did Djokovic. Murray managed a break at 4-3 to get to 5-3. The game was very well played out by both players but Murray was devastating in the rallies. The next game and Murray was serving for the championship. He managed to go down 30-40 but took the next two points to get his first ever Championship point. Great bravery from Djokovic with a drop shot as he managed to save the point to go back to Deuce. After three more championship points for Murray and there was no cigar, Djokovic broke back brilliantly defending his position and holding serve. The game after to make it 5-5, another exciting finish.

Both players held again to make it 6-6 and we got to a tie break, both started of slow but Djokovic looked more like he was throwing in the towel than Murray, but he hit a superb winner on Murray’s serve to get to 5-5, Murray quite emphatically took two points with one massive winner on Djokovic’s serve and a backhand winner down the line to take a well deserved victory.

Overall both players played excellent throughout the week, The Cincinnati Masters is truly a great tournament and the fans are very delightful, with very neutral cheering. The only factor is the temperature is ridiculously high but an overall well held tournament. To the Olympics now for Murray and then bring his form into the US Open. For a British tennis player to win a Grand Slam would be a huge stepping stone in British tennis, lets hope he can fix his attitude a bit more to become a real role model.