Andy Murray enters his first clay court final with a comfortable win in the semis
Top seed, Andy Murray beat Robert Bautista Agut in the semifinals of the BMW Munich ATP 250 Masters 6-4, 6-4. to reach a clay court tournament final for the first time in his career. He will now face the German Philip Kohlschreiber, who has won the tournament twice, in the finals tomorrow. Kohlschreiber beat qualifier Gerard Melzer, ranked 186, 2-6, 6-1, 6-4.
Murray didn’t have a good start to the match, as Bautista Agut raced to a 3-0 lead in the first set. But the Scot picked up momentum and took advantage of the erring Spaniard to win the set 6-4. In the second set, Murray broke his opponent’s serve early and consolidated it through the set by holding serves to see through the end of the match as the winner.
The tournament was hit by rain delays as Murray had to complete his quarter-final match against Lukas Rosol and the semifinal against Bautista-Agut on the same day. The 27-year-old was also scheduled to play his doubles semifinals, partnering with Julian Roger, the same day.
The two-time grand slam champion from Scotland, who has won 9 ATP 1000 tournaments and the Olympic gold in 2012, had never made it to a clay-court final in his career, let alone win one. Murray has never enjoyed great success on the red dust, failing to progress past the quarter-finals in any clay court tournament in 2014. He will look to break his clay court jinx tomorrow, hoping to win maiden clay court title of his career.