Murray to face Cilic in final

Andy Murray is through to the AEGON Championships final
16 June 2013

Andy Murray came back from a set down to beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 4-6 6-3 6-2 and set up an AEGON Championships final against defending champion Marin Cilic.

Top seed Murray, who beat Tsonga in the 2011 final at Queen's and has never lost to the world number seven on grass, was forced to wait for the inclement weather to clear before taking to centre court.

After the players finally got on to court in the south-west London at just after 6pm, the opening games were very straightforward with both players feeling their way into the match and judging the ever-changing conditions.

Murray saved three break points in his third service game to hold for 3-2 but a double-fault at break-point in the ninth game put Tsonga in the driving seat to take the opening set. The Frenchman, who reached the semi-finals in Roland Garros earlier in the month, did just that - finishing the deciding game with an ace as Murray dropped his first set of the tournament.

The Scot responded in the second set, picking up his performance and breaking crucially to wrap up a 6-3 win and take the match into a deciding set.

Again Murray proved too strong for Tsonga, breaking on the seventh break-point of the third game and breaking to love next time around to open up a 4-1 lead before holding his next two service games to progress into the final, where he will play fifth-seed Cilic.

The Croatian booked his place against Murray by completing a 6-4 4-6 6-2 win in his semi-final match against four-time winner Lleyton Hewitt. The match looked set to start on time but a rain delay forced the players back into the locker room before a ball had been hit in earnest.

When they returned Hewitt struggled with the blustery conditions, serving five double-faults before rain brought the players off again with Cilic 2-0 ahead.

The constant downpour meant the match did not resume for more than two hours and when they did manage to finish the contest it was on court one, after the tournament organisers made the decision to start with Murray against Tsonga on centre.

Sunday's final is scheduled to start two hours earlier than originally planned, with a noon start in place to hopefully avoid showers forecast for later in the afternoon.

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