Andy Murray looked to continue his career-best season, while Grigor Dimitrov tried to win his first title in two years.
In the first three Grand Slams of 2016, Andy Murray featured prominently in all of them, with runner-up finishes at the Australian and French Opens before capturing his second Wimbledon title. However, his finals streak came to an end at the US Open, where he lost in the quarterfinals in five sets to Kei Nishikori.
After the tournament, he suffered another five-set loss, this time to Juan Martin del Potro in the Davis Cup semifinals, which helped end defending champion Great Britain’s run.
Still, Murray had been making gains on world No. 1 Novak Djokovic’s overwhelming lead in the standings. In Murray’s first tournament after the Davis Cup, he reached the finals of the China Open—winning each match in straight sets along the way.
On the other side of the draw, an unseeded Grigor Dimitrov was putting on a strong showing of his own. The Bulgarian, who failed to make a final in 2015, reached his third championship match of 2016, which included his first win in eight matches over Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals.
Murray, who always played well in China as evidenced by two Shanghai Masters titles struck first, breaking Dimitrov in the first game of the match. Racking up errors throughout the set, Dimitrov eventually lost it 6-4.
In the second set, the two stayed on serve through the first four games. Once again, it was Murray who secured the first break to take a 3-2 lead. Both players held through the next few games, and at 5-4, Murray served for the match.
Dimitrov, though, wasn’t done yet.
Perhaps buoyed by winning a 43-shot point, Dimitrov broke Murray’s serve at love. The set went to a tiebreak, with Dimitrov looking to keep his momentum going.
However, Murray—as he’d been doing through most of the year—was able to hold off Dimitrov’s charge. He secured a mini-break right at the start, then kept up the pressure. The world No. 2 swept through the breaker to clinch the title, and with victory at the ATP 500-level event, closed the ranking gap between him and Djokovic to less than 1,600 points.
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In his first career final back in 2013, Dimitrov lost to Murray, 7-6(0), 6-4—a near-reversal of this scoreline in China. Between the two tiebreaks played over the two matches, Dimitrov only won two points.
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This was Murray’s fifth title of the season, marking the first time since 2011 he won that many tournaments in a year.
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With the title, Murray became the sixteenth male player in the Open Era to win 40 singles titles.
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