Andy Murray admitted yesterday that having a “Sir” in front of his name will take some getting used to – but the Scot was back in familiar territory on the court when he finished 2016 with a win.
Murray, knighted in the New Year Honours, following an unprecedented year for a British tennis player, recovered from a rare loss to David Goffin in the semi-finals of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi to beat Milos Raonic 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) in the third place play-off.
The 29-year-old gave his first public reaction to his knighthood after his triumph over the Canadian world No 3 at the exhibition tournament.
Murray said: “I still feel like Andy Murray – that feels more normal – but I am happy with the knighthood and it is a nice way to start the new year.”
After an uncharacteristically sluggish display against Goffin on Friday, Murray was quickly on the front foot against Raonic, breaking twice to rack up a 4-0 lead against the man he overcame in last summer’s Wimbledon final.
Raonic got a break back but Murray cruised to first-set victory in 35 minutes. Raonic is known for his powerful serve but also lost his first two service games against Rafael Nadal on Friday, the Spaniard going on win the tournament with victory over Goffin.
Raonic’s explanation was simple. “Normally when you play any other tournament, you don’t play two of the best returners in the game in two consecutive days, so it’s a different scenario,” he said.
Yesterday’s second set was closer. Murray broke to take a 4-3 lead but was himself broken when serving for the match at 5-4.
A tie-break followed in which Murray got to match point with a beautiful cross-court passing shot.
“It was good to finish the year with a win,” Murray said. “It was a good match to work on returns as Milos has a strong serve.”
Murray now heads to Doha for the Qatar Open to officially begin his 2017 season, while Raonic is off to Australia to defend his Brisbane International title.
Raonic will be joined Down Under by Nadal, who beat Goffin 6-4, 7-6 in the Abu Dhabi final.
The defending champion, who ended his 2016 season in October in order to focus on making a full recovery from an injury to his left wrist, beat Tomas Berdych as well as Raonic on the was to the final and has looked in good form. Goffin gave Nadal his toughest test of the week but the Belgian crucially suffered the only service loss of the first set at 5-4 down.
In the second set, breaks were twice exchanged, before Goffin created four chances to break for 6-5, only for Nadal to hold and go on to win the tie-break.
In New Zealand, Laura Robson was beaten in the first round of qualifying at the ASB Classic in Auckland, going down 3-6, 7-5 (8-6), 6-7 to the Czech Republic’s Tereza Martincova despite having carved out four match points.
The Briton, who had a career- high ranking of 27 in 2013, is a lowly 222nd as she continues her attempt to battle back from a left wrist injury sustained at the beginning of 2014.
Robson, who is still only 22, played regularly last year but failed to find the kind of consistency that would have sent her back up the rankings.
Failing to make the main draw in Auckland will be a major disappointment.
Robson served her eighth double fault of the match in the penultimate point to hand the advantage to her opponent.
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