There were a couple of glitches, and a couple of things still need ironing out, but Andy Murray completed the perfect week of preparation for Wimbledon as he won his third Aegon Championships at London's Queen's Club yesterday.

His 5-7, 7-5, 6-3 victory moved him alongside Jimmy Connors as a three-time champion, and he now has John McEnroe, Boris Becker, Lleyton Hewitt and Andy Roddick's four wins in his sights.

More immediately and more pertinently, he looks in good shape as he heads for a final week of practice and fine tuning before beginning his assault on the Wimbledon title.

Twelve months ago, only an inspired Roger Federer, with the help of the closed roof, stopped the Scot from joining tennis royalty by getting his name on the honours board at the All England Club.

After a month out with a back injury, which forced him to miss the French Open, Murray showed there is nothing wrong with his form, following up victory over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga with a fine win over last year's winner, Cilic, for his third title of 2013.

"He's one of the best grass-court players in the world," Murray said of Cilic. "We've played each other since juniors, had a lot of close matches and I was lucky to come through at the end because he was playing such good tennis. He played very well.

"I worked very hard in the time that I had off to try to get myself back in the best shape possible. My team helped me a lot, they were patient with me and it's why I was able to come out and play so tough in the last couple of matches.

Murray has won three grass-court titles, and Olympic gold on the surface, and he will be heavily fancied for Wimbledon, especially having got the monkey off his back by winning the US Open in September.

After beating Tsonga, he had said he would need to be up for it against Cilic and, three hours after the scheduled start because of yet more rain, he began brilliantly, breaking the Croat in the second game with a forehand winner.

The 26-year-old turned a 2-0 lead into a 4-1 advantage but having beaten Tomas Berdych and Hewitt on his way to the final, Cilic was not going to just roll over.

The Croat held serve and then broke Murray to get back on serve before a moment of real concern for Murray as he slipped and appeared to stretch his groin muscle.

"The courts have taken a bit of a pounding this week – it's been extremely wet – and I just slipped," Murray said. "I was a bit sore in the groin area, but thankfully it wasn't too bad."

A few grimaces and grunts accompanied his efforts in the next games but the injury was not serious as he forced three break points. Cilic held them all with some fine serving, then broke Murray in the 11th game before serving out the set.

As against Tsonga in the semi-final, Murray hit form midway through the second set, returning sharply and retrieving everything.

Cilic saved three break points in the sixth game but the pressure was building and a good forehand return forced an error from the Croat and the match was level. With the court finally bathed in sunshine, Murray had the momentum and a fine backhand return forced a break point at 1-1 and the pressure told as Cilic pulled a forehand wide.

Cilic saved three break points at 1-4, and a match point at 2-5, but Murray made no mistake when he served for the title, closing it out as Cilic netted a forehand.

Fists pumped, a delighted Murray blew a kiss towards Ross Hutchins, who has Hodgkin's lymphoma and who organised a charity event here after the final, involving Murray, his coach Ivan Lendl, Tim Henman and Tomas Berdych.

"Andy showed he's a great fighter," Cilic said. "It was an extremely good week for me, I enjoyed all my matches.I had some tough fights and I hope I can continue with my good form."

Murray and Lendl will now begin working on the grand plan they hope will make him the first British man to triumph at Wimbledon since 1936.

With Federer winning the title in Halle yesterday and with world No.1 Novak Djokovic and French Open champion Rafael Nadal nicely rested, doing it will be far from easy.

But at least Murray followed through on one pledge yesterday, managing to hit Lendl with a drive volley, prompting wide celebrations.

Lendl seemed to see the funny side. Now it's down to business.