Andy Murray made sure of claiming the world No. 2 ranking, but he still had to get past Juan Martin Del Potro to claim the ATP Montreal Masters crown.
Third-seeded Murray beat French seventh seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-4, 7-6 (10/8) in the semi-finals and is set to rise to second in the world for the first time in his career.
Sixth-seeded Del Potro, who won the title in Washington over Andy Roddick last weekend, continued his dominance over the three-time Wimbledon runner-up as he beat the fifth-seeded American 4-6, 6-2, 7-5.
Del Potro fired 19 aces in a semi-final victory lasting just over two hours.
Del Potro owns former No. 1 Roddick after winning all three of their meetings. He trails Murray, 3-1, earning his lone victory in their last meeting at the Madrid Masters in May.
Del Potro trailed 5-4 in the third, saved a match point and then broke Roddick en route to taking the match.
Britain’s Murray will replace Rafael Nadal in the slot behind Roger Federer when the new rankings are released today.
Murray’s trip to the final insured his promotion after Nadal — back after a break of more than two months nursing tendonitis in his knees — lost in the quarter-finals on Friday to Del Potro.
The change makes Murray the first player other than Nadal or Federer to rank No. 2 since July 18, 2005, when Australia’s Lleyton Hewitt stood second behind Federer.
“This is very special for me,” Murray said.
“For five years it’s been Rafa and Roger on one and two, they are I think the two best maybe of all time,” he said. “So it’s pretty special to get in between them.”
Murray reinforced his status as the highest-ranked British player since the rankings began in 1973 as he won his 49th match of the season.
Murray recovered from an early break to win the opening set. In the second-set tiebreaker he trailed 4-2 and saved two Tsonga set-points before claiming the victory on his second match point.
“Andy’s a very good player and it’s tough to go to the net every time against him,” Tsonga said. “But that’s fine, I’m OK with that.”
■CINCINNATI OPEN
AFP, CINCINNATI, OHIO
World No. 1 Dinara Safina cruised into the final of the US$2 million WTA Cincinnati Open on Saturday as Jelena Jankovic clawed her way into the title match.
Safina needed just 56 minutes to post a 6-2, 6-0 victory over Italy’s Flavia Pennetta. She improved to 7-0 lifetime against Pennetta, who was coming off a third-round victory over Venus Williams here as well as a title in Los Angeles last weekend.
In yesterday’s final, Russia’s Safina was to take on fifth-seeded Serbian Jankovic, who emerged from a scrappy match with a 7-6 (7/2), 0-6, 7-6 (8/6) victory over fourth-seeded Russian Elena Dementieva.
Jankovic squandered three match points in the third set as Dementieva forced the tiebreaker.
She fell behind 6-2 before winning the final six points, finally sealing the victory after 2 hours and 46 minutes.
She and Dementieva combined for 13 breaks of serve and 25 double-faults.
“I don’t believe I won this match,” Jankovic said.
There were no such worries for Safina, who reached her eighth final in 14 tournaments this year.
Pennetta admitted her run of success, which saw her playing her 11th match in 13 days, had taken a toll. She had blisters on her feet and played with her aching right ankle taped.
“She was playing much better than me,” Pennetta said. “I was a little bit tired, of course, but I didn’t lose for that. She was playing unbelievable.”
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