Andy Murray claimed his 4th ATP 1000 Masters title as he completed a superb first week back in competition after losing last months Wimbledon semi final to Andy Roddick.

He needed to fight back from a set down to beat Juan Martin Del Potro in the final, the Argentine pushed Murray all the way in the first two sets but the 22-year-old Scot outlasted the world number six 6-7 (4-7) 7-6 (7-3) 6-1

This is Murray’s 13th career title and caps off an amazing week that will see him rise to world number 2 for the first time. He was already the first Briton to reach the number 3 spot and he will no go down as the first Brit to reach number 2. Can he make it to number 1?

He now heads to Cincinnati next week to defend the title he won last year. That tournament last year was a big through event for Murray, it was his first masters event win and he beat Novak Djokovic in the final for the 2nd time in as many weeks.

Murray’s victory today was far from straight forward and was made to really work hard for his win. Del Potro was playing in his first Masters 1000 final and for much of the match looked like winning, the match hinged on the second set tie break, which Murray managed to guts out, largely down to Murray’s superior fitness as he outlasted the 20-year-old in the hot conditions.

The first major tennis event since Wimbledon 2009 is about to get under at the Rogers Cup in Montreal.

Just as it was 6 weeks ago, 15 time grand slam winner Roger Federer is the bookmakers favorite to lift the title with Britain’s Andy Murray second favorite. You will get on average 8/5 on Federer winning and 16/5 on Murray

Last years Rogers Cup winner Rafael Nadal is the third favorite, this will be the Spaniards first event since he lost at the French Open 3 months ago. The average odds for Nadal to make a winning comeback is 8/1.

Decent outside bet – you can get 14/1 on Andy Roddick at Betfair or if you are looking for something even higher Nikolay Davydenko is 54/1 at Betfair and the Russian has been showing some decent form after recovering from injury which has hampered his first half of 2009. Since Wimbledon Davydenko won back to back titles in Hamburg and Umag.

If you are placing a bet on the Rogers Cup winner you should try Betfair as their odds are consistantly higher and when you sign up you get a free £25 bet.

Andy Murray will play his first match since losing to Andy Roddick in the semi finals of Wimbledon at the 2009 Rogers Cup in Montreal.

The Masters event which switches between Montreal and Toronto each year will begin today and Murray will start his campaign against either Yen-Hsun Lu or Jeremy Chardy.

Murray is drawn in Federer’s half the opposite half of Nadal, who Murray could potentially displace as world number 2 if results go his way. 

Murray reached the semi final of the event last year (played in Toronto) whilst Nadal won the event, those points though have already been removed as the 2008 rogers cup was held early to make way for the Beijing Olympics. At the end of the Week Nadal will lose his 800 points he gained at the Olympics, levaing just over a 200 point gap between the two.

Bookmakers have Murray second favorite to win the event with Federer as favorite. See a full list of Rogers Cup Winner Odds.

Andy Murray suffered his fifth straight loss to Rafael Nadal in the semi finals of the Rogers Cup masters event in Toronto. Murray lost in straight sets, 7-6, 6-3 to the world number 2.

This match, unlike the Wimbledon semi final, was close and rather than Murray struggling to trying and keep up with Nadal, it was Nadal’s ability to move up an extra gear in the vital times of a set.

The first set was full off high quality tennis that needed a tie break to separate them and rather than Nadal winning the breaker, Murray faltered and lost the set. A recurring knee injury was a possible cause for the deterioration in Murray’s play in the tie break, umpire Cedric Mourier’s refused an injury time-out request by Murray in the 11th games after coming down hard on the joint on a serve, Murray had to wait till the end of the tie break, before receiving treatment. After the match Murray told reporters,

When I asked for the trainer he (Mourier) said: “Is it for your knee?”. He knew before I even told him that there was a problem there, because I had been limping for two games. He still didn’t let me have the trainer.

Nadal broke Murray for the first time in the match to take a 3-1 lead in the second set and the matched at that point looked over, but the last 3 months has seen a different Andy Murray and he fought back and regained the break of serve to level at 3-3 before Nadal shifted into that higher gear and powered home for the win.

Nadal is now closing in on number 1 spot and Murray thinks he will soon do it,

He’s definitely doing a lot of things better than he was in the past I think he’s moving better on hard courts, and I think he’s sort of changing the pace of the ball a little bit more and not playing so far behind the baseline like he did in the past. That’s why I think he’ll be number one in the world soon.

After the match Nadal had some kind words for Murray,

I played very well against Andy today because, in my opinion, he played one of his best matches against me

Later tonight Andy Murray will once again take on Rafael Nadal, the world Number 2 and perhaps soon to be world number 1.

After his win over Novak Djokovic last night Murray will be in confident mood, he had not beaten either Novak Djokovic or Rafael Nadal before coming into this tournament and now with his win against Djokovic has a chance to really silence his critics and break his duct against another player.

 Murray’s Odds of winning are much the same as they were against Djokovic last night and as usual the best odds you will find for either player is at Betfair.

The history of these two players suggests that the bookmakers have it right, the two have met on 4 previous occasions and Nadal has won all 4 matches. Their last match of coarse was the demolition of Murray at Wimbledon just a few weeks ago. That match could either work for or against Murray, it could give him the focus to beat Nadal or give him the fear that he can’t beat Nadal, ever.

That match was on grass and today the play on hard courts, Andy’s favorite surface and Nadal’s least. Their first match together was an epic 5 setter in the 4th round of the Australian open in 2007. A 19 year old Murray twice lost a 1 set lead going down 6-7(3) 6-4 4-6 6-3 6-1. That match was played on hard courts.

From then they met twice on the regular ATP tour, in 2007 they met at the Madrid Masters, Murray lost a tight 2 set match 7-6(5) 6-4 and their other meeting was just 3 months ago at the  Hamburg Masters, this time the match took place on Clay and Murray never really had a chance of beating the clay court specialist. Murray would lose the match easily 6-3 6-2.

The Bookmakers got it wrong yesterday, lets hope the same thing happens today!