It is a long time since the ATP Tour used bonus points for victories over top players but some wins are still more valuable than others, as Andy Murray demonstrated yesterday at the China Open in Beijing.
His 6-1, 6-4 victory over Marin Cilic, the US Open champion, not only gave him a place in the semi-finals and extended his winning streak to seven matches, it reinforced his belief that he can end 2014 on a high.
The victory lifted Murray into ninth in the race for a spot in the season-ending Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, just a handful of points behind Milos Raonic in eighth.
In rankings terms, it was Murray's best win since defeating Novak Djokovic to win Wimbledon 15 months ago and he is scheduled to face the Serb in the early hours of tomorrow morning.
But it will be the manner of his performance yesterday that will excite Murray even more. The fragility that was evident even as recently as Wimbledon appears to have gone, replaced by a renewed belief and a familiar steel.
"I feel I'm harder to beat just now than I was," he said, referring to how long it has taken him to get back to his best after missing the last three months of 2013 due to back surgery.
"At the beginning of the year, I was quite inconsistent. But I'm starting to build some momentum, get that consistency back. That equals good wins against better opposition."
Murray was switched on right from the start yesterday, forcing Cilic out of his comfort zone. The Cilic serve, under pressure from the start, was broken in the fourth game as Murray stamped his authority, repeating the feat in the sixth game to take the set.
The second set was much closer but a forehand pass from Murray wrapped up his 10th win in 12 matches against the newly-crowned US Open champion.
There has been a lot of talk in China about a changing of the guard. However, with Murray beating Cilic and Djokovic thumping Grigor Dimitrov yesterday change may have to wait, albeit world No.2 Rafael Nadal suffered a surprise 6-7 (7/9), 6-4, 6-3 defeat against Martin Klizan.
"It's logical to expect that after so many years of dominance of three, four players, there are some others who are coming up and challenging," Djokovic said. "But on the other hand it's still not happening that they are the ones winning grand slams and being top three, four in the world."
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