Nottingham Open: Andy Murray clinches consecutive final berth
Andy Murray makes another final with win over Nuno Borges.
Andy Murray stormed into the Rothesay Open final in Nottingham after a ninth win in a row against Nuno Borges.
The former world number one won his second title of the season on the second-tier Challenger Tour in Surbiton last week and is aiming to repeat the feat at the Nottingham Tennis Centre.
He is yet to drop a set and rated his quarter-final victory over Dominic Stricker on Friday as his best performance of the fortnight.
The 36-year-old carried that form into Saturday's meeting with Portuguese Borges, ranked 73, to win 6-3 6-2 in an hour and 12 minutes.
It completed another memorable day for the home players after Katie Boulter and Jodie Burrage set up a very rare all-British final in the WTA event.
Murray broke Borges' serve at the first opportunity and was clinical in the first set. The only blip came when he dropped serve after breaking early in the second but he put it behind him quickly and won the final four games.
"I thought the start of the match was really good," said Murray.
"The second set was quite scrappy I think from both ends.
"The second set wasn't so good but the first set was high level, I was really happy with it. You're not going to play your best all the time. There are going to be blips and I managed to deal with it OK."
In the final, the Scot will take on 20-year-old Frenchman Arthur Cazaux, who defeated Dominik Koepfer 7-5 6-2.
"I've played a lot of youngsters recently and it's always tough," said Murray. "We practised with each other recently so hopefully not too many surprises."