WHEN Andy Murray arrived in Munich a week ago, he talked about how much winning a clay-court title would mean to him in terms of his career.

After an epic day yesterday, he can seal the deal today by beating Philipp Kohlschreiber to win the BMW Open.

Not since his junior days has Murray had to win two singles matches in a day but after overcoming Lukas Rosol in a feisty quarter-final and Roberto Bautista- Agut of Spain in a high-quality semi-final, only the German stands in his way.

Munich shelled out a lot of money to bring Murray to the city but getting their man to the final is worth the investment and the Scot dug deep when needed and showed his endurance to make it to a first clay-court final.

Kohlschreiber was responsible for one of Murray's worst defeats on clay, a 6-2, 6-1 drubbing in Monte Carlo a few years ago.

But the world No 3 has won both their meetings since, including a 12-10 final-set victory at the French Open last summer, and will go into today's final with growing confidence, if he can recover from his exploits.

"This [day] can be beneficial in some ways [to his confidence on clay]," Murray said. "But it's not perfect for Madrid [which starts today] because days like today you don't just recover from in one day, you need a few days.

"But in terms of the matches, I beat two very good players today. Rosol's a dangerous opponent and beating Bautista-Agut on clay is a really good win. It's been a pos-itive week already in that respect and hopefully I can build on it."

Kohlscrhreiber, ranked 26, will do well not to antagonise Murray in the same way Rosol did yesterday, an ugly moment that spurred the Scot on to recover from the loss of the first set.

Having squandered a 4-1 lead in the opener to drop the first set, Murray was annoyed enough but was livid when Rosol barged into his shoulder at the changeover.

It was a bizarre moment and drove Murray to voice his anger: "He does this all the time. That's why no one likes you on tour."

Murray later apologised for his comments but said the incident had given him the motivation to roar back for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory.

"He basically walked straight into me for no reason," Murray said. "He walked into me and then ran down the other end of the court. He did it intentionally. I shouldn't have said what I said but if someone does that to you and you don't respond you're letting him dictate how the match goes. I was always taught by my Dad if someone pushes you or threatens you, that you stick up for yourself."

Murray said Rosol had apologised to him in the locker-room after the match and the Scot revealed that he had given the Czech a bit of advice.

"A couple of weeks ago, [Guillermo] Garcia-Lopez refused to shake his hand and he had won the match," he said.

"I've never really had a problem with him but a lot of people said he does those things all the time. It's just silly. Today, it's not 100% certain he would have won the match but that gave me motivation - and I told him that in the locker room when he apologised - because it gives the opponent some [motivation].

"Maybe if you're losing I can understand it but if you're winning, it doesn't really make sense."

Providing he was not tempted to stay up to watch last night's big fight between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, he will hope to have enough in the tank to see off Kohlschreiber for his first clay-court title.

Coach Jonas Bjorkman, whose role is set to take on even more significance as Amelie Mauresmo counts down the weeks to the birth of her first child in August, has been ever-present this week.

Sealing a first clay-court crown would be a nice start for the Swede but he will have more effect as the months go on, particularly over the grass-court season and at Wimbledon, where he won the doubles title three times.