Murray heads into final a happy man
Top seed Andy Murray will face defending champion Marin Cilic in the Aegon Championships final at Queen's on Sunday, with the world number two pleased with how his game has progressed.
Both players came through tough semi-finals on a rainy day in London with Murray seeing off fourth seed Jo-Wifried Tsonga and Cilic edging past four-time winner Lleyton Hewitt. Constant rain meant a delay to proceedings but Murray's semi-final eventually started at just after 6:00pm, with the world number two sealing a 4-6 6-3 6-2 victory.
"I'm much happier," he said.
"You don't always come into this tournament with high expectations because you haven't had that long to prepare and it's always a tough draw here. I lost in the first round last year and had my best run at Wimbledon, but I think because I missed the French Open it's really, really important for me to get matches in this week.
"If I had lost my first match to Mahut and going into Wimbledon and having played one match in six or seven weeks - that's tough if you want to win the event. So it was really important for me to get some matches."
The reigning US Open champion admitted earlier in the week he was still searching for overall consistency in his game and conceded he had to fight back after a poor start against Tsonga.
"I turned it around well in the second set," he said. "I put it back in on my serve to get broken at four-all on the first, but he had some chances beginning of the second, and I came up with a couple of good shots. Once I got the break, I played much better."
Murray holds a great record against Croatian Cilic, winning eight of their nine previous meetings - including a straight-sets win en route to the Wimbledon final last summer. But the 26-year-old is expecting a challenging encounter with the world number 12.
"It will be a very tough match," he added. "He plays well here. He's won nine matches in a row, and he's beaten some very tough, top grass court players this week.
"I'll try to play a good match and regardless of what happens for me, it's a good step in the right direction, another tough match against one of the top 10 grass court players in the world, I would say."
