Cincy Final: Djokovic vs Murray

Novak Djokovic improved to an amazing 57-1 record for the year when Tomas Berdych retired after dropping the last 3 games of the first set to lose it 7-5. Berdych had bested Roger Federer the day before but ha withdrawn from his doubles match afterwards and after about 8 games against Djokovic he basically could no longer hit the ball due to his injured shoulder.

The other semifinal match up between Mardy Fish and Andy Murray was a much more interesting affair. Murray was clearly the better in the first set, with Fish not showing the tennis that led to his stunning straight-sets defeat of World #2 Rafael Nadal. However, after winning the first set 6-3 Murray repeatedly relinquished service breaks until a second set tiebreak which was of high quality. Fish led 4-2 at the change over but Murray battled back to 5-all and then the most bizarre thing happened at the 8-7  match point, Fish serving. Fish hit a good first serve and Murray (mis)hit a service return which looked like it dropped in the corner, kissing the side line for a clear winner. Both players sheepishly approached the net and Fish challenged the (in) line call and the electronic review showed the ball had actually fallen out. 8-all instead of match over. However, the match did end two points later, with a forehand service error from Fish.

Djokovic and Murray will face each other for the fourth time in a final, with Murray leading 2-1 but Djokovic easily won their meeting at the 2011 Australian Open earlier this year and leads their career head-to-head 6-3 (which is a surprisingly low total considering how long these two have both been at the top echelons of tennis simultaneously).

Djokovic is clearly mentally tired and Murray has been playing well. Before Federer handed Djokovic his one loss all year in the French Open semifinals in Paris, Murray nearly beat the Serbian in a 3-set thriller in Rome. I would not be surprised if Murray wins tomorrow, probably in three sets.