Cilic ends Murray’s winning streak at Cincinnati final

Cilic ends Murray's winning

Olympic champion Andy Murray’s career-best unbeaten run ended at 22 matches with a 6-4 7-5 defeat by Marin Cilic in the Cincinnati Masters final.Just a week after retaining his Olympic title in Rio, Murray lost in an hour and 34 minutes to 27-year-old Cilic.

The World number two was attempting to secure his third Cincinnati Masters title, after wins in 2008 and 2011.

Victory brought Cilic his first title of 2016 and third since 2014’s US Open.

The 12th-seed, who has struggled to recapture the form he showed in winning the 2014 U.S. Open, produced a dominant serve and booming groundstrokes in a 6-4 7-5 victory.

It was the Croat’s first victory in the ATP Tour’s premier series in his 71st appearance, and it ended a dominant run by the “big four” of Murray, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal, who had won the past 18 tournaments in the series.

The loss also put a stop to a grand run by top seed Murray that included his second Wimbledon title and an unprecedented repeat as the Olympic men’s singles champion last week at the Rio Games.

“It’s been a great run the last few months, but unfortunately couldn’t get it done today,” Murray said at the trophy presentation. “We’ll keep working to get better.”