Injured Novak Djokovic withdraws in final against Andy Murray – Western & Southern Open 2011
Magnificent 16-match winning streak of the world number one, Novak Djokovic of Serbia, ended in dismay, when he was forced to retire against the world number four, Andy Murray of the Great Britain, in the final of Western and Southern
Financial Group Masters on Sunday afternoon.
The top seeded Serb suffered his second defeat of the current year to make his record 57-2 and withdrew from the contest for the reason of his sore right shoulder. The curtailed version of the contest lasted for just one hour and
twelve minutes of play before Murray was declared as the champion at 6-4, 3-0, after Djokovic denied playing further.
The local crowd at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason, Ohio, near Cincinnati, United States, came in to see Djokovic bag his 10th championship title of the running ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) season
but the top seed didn’t come up to the expectations of his fans. Symptoms of fatigue were evident from the body of the world number one when he stepped on the hard court of Cincinnati. He was outplayed in the opening set of the match by Murray and was in a
terrible position, trailing 3-0 in the second set, when he called to quit the game to let the Briton lift the ATP Masters Series title.
“There is no good loss, that’s for sure,” Djokovic said in his post match reviews. “The good thing is there’s a week, eight days to the start of the Open. I’m confident I can recover and be ready for the U.S. Open. I could have
maybe played another couple of games, but what for? I cannot beat a player like Murray today with one stroke. I was generally exhausted playing many matches, but the exhaustion is not the reason. The reason is shoulder pain. I just could not serve.”
Murray was absolutely ballistic in the matchup and completely over whelmed the injury-stricken top seed in an assertive manner. The Briton nailed four out of six serve breaks in the matchup and suffered just one from Djokovic en
route to victory. A total of 84 points were played in the contest, with Murray bagging 51 and Djokovic lagging far behind with just 33 points to lose Cincinnati Masters.
It was the second championship title for Murray in the running ATP season and the first Master Series win of the year.
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