It may have been prophetic.

Novak Djokovic was playing a match against Tomas Berdych.  Berdych has secured a break in the middle of the first set on the heels of an amazing point.  Although Berdych held to lead 5-3, it would be the last game he would win.  Four games later, Novak Djokovic claimed the first set.  Berdych’s shoulder had been affecting him, and he decided to retire.

Djokovic was very sympathetic to Berdych’s malady claiming it matched his own.  Had Berdych known, perhaps it would have been a game of chicken to decide who would retire first.

Perhaps Djokovic knew things weren’t going his way when he got immediately broken.  Murray kept the break lead despite having close games, but Djokovic eventually broke back.  Djokovic was struggling with unforced errors early on, mostly on the forehand, having trouble keeping the ball in play.  One change Murray made in playing Djokovic was playing more shots down the line on both forehand and backhand.  If Murray had a weakness a year or two ago, he was very reluctant to pull the trigger with down-the-line shots preferring to hit more aggressively crosscourt instead.  Some players, most notably, David Ferrer took advantage of this by attacking Murray’s backhand with his forehand knowing Murray was reluctant to go for the down-the-line shot win.

Just after breaking back, Murray broke again to take the first set, 6-4.  Djokovic was starting to play somewhat better, but because he seemed to be struggling, he started playing both more aggressive on the forehand, and also throwing in drop shots to mix it up.

Murray broke to open the second set, then held his own serve, and then broke a second time to take a 3-0 lead. Djokovic had taken a break between sets to get his shoulders massaged.  He seem withered by the heat and humidity.

At that point, Djokovic was talking to Murray and the chair umpire deciding there was no way he could finish the match, especially after giving up the second break of serve.  The score was 6-4, 3-0 ret.

Apparently, a minute after retiring, the rain came pouring down.  Maybe if Djokovic had known, he might have taken the break to see if he could recover, but Murray had noticed that his serve had slowed down.  Had this been due to Djokovic’s shoulder injury, retiring would be the sensible thing to do.  Had it been due to fatigue, then the rain delay might have been to Djokovic’s benefit.

In any case, Murray wins his second title of the year.  He claimed that his game was doing better as the week went along, and that playing in consecutive days in the early parts of the day, while taxing, was beneficial leading to the US Open.  Unlike other years, he felt that he still had work to do before the start of the US Open.  In previous years, he had often finished the US Open tuneups hitting pretty well and found himself not faring as well at the US Open.

Murray’s best result at the US Open was in 2008.  The schedule was a bit topsy-turvy that year.  The Olympics tennis tournament was played between August 10 and August 17.  Normally that week is the week Cincy is played.  Instead, both Toronto and Cincy were played just before the Olympics and Los Angeles and Washington DC was played afterwards.  Murray was one of the top players that lost right away in the first round, so he had time to come back and prepare for the US Open for two weeks.

My feeling was that Murray wasn’t playing great tennis today, though he moved around pretty well.  He didn’t have Djokovic on the defense that much, although perhaps his strokes were aggressive enough to cause Djokovic to miss (31 unforced errors by Djokovic to 10 for Murray).  As usual, Murray got pushed around, so he had to do a fair bit of running, which he did.

Next week, the inaugural Winston-Salem event will be played.  Roddick and Isner headline this event.  Mardy Fish withdrew after he played deep in yet another US Open series event.  Roddick has had poor outings recently, primarily his loss to Kohlschreiber in the opening round.  Roddick normally doesn’t play this late into the US Open series but with injuries and lack of match practice affecting him, he’s had to play just to get a few matches.

This is Murray’s seventh Masters 1000 title, the most of anyone never to have won a Slam.  Although Murray was a solid number 4, this title will give a bigger cushion between him and number 5.