Being world No 2 is better than win, says Murray

(AP)

Andy Murray insists he will definitely be fit to defend his Cincinnati Masters title this week. The Scot enjoyed a rewarding week in Montreal, winning the Rogers Cup with a victory over Juan Martin del Potro in Sunday night's final, despite losing the first set, while also overtaking Rafael Nadal to become world No 2.

There was some concern that Murray, who won in Cincinnati last year, would not be able to take part this week after he was seen clutching his hip during the presentation ceremony. However, Murray claims he will have no problems in taking to the courts.

"I'm stiff, I think," he said. "It was a pretty intense match and my first tournament on hard courts for so long. The hard courts are the most brutal on your body. I'm just a little bit stiff just now. I plan on going to Cincinnati to try to defend my title."

Murray's triumph in Cincinnati last year set him up perfectly for the US Open and his best ever performance in a grand slam event to date, reaching the final only to lose to the world No 1 Roger Federer.

The 22-year-old is hoping for a repeat performance this week and insists his mind is not on Flushing Meadows, where he will be hoping to go one better this time around.

"Obviously to win this tournament is great," he added. "The US Open is still a couple of weeks away so I'll focus on Cincinnati and try and play well again there."

Murray admits breaking the duopoly of Federer and Nadal means more to him than his Montreal victory. "I love winning tournaments," said Murray. "It's great. Every player will tell you the same thing. But I've never been to No 2 in the world before. It's something that I've never done. That's new to me. I'll enjoy that for the next couple of days."

Murray fought back brilliantly on Sunday to beat Del Potro after the big-hitting Argentine took the first set. The man from Dunblane recovered from dropping his first set of the week to take the match 6-7, 7-6, 6-1.

And Murray feels his experience shone through after Del Potro, playing in his first Masters final, started to flag. "The thing that's tough with him, because of his height, he's obviously got a big serve," said Murray. "He hits the ball so clean from the back of the court that he makes it very, very tough for you and you end up doing quite a lot of running.

"He obviously was tired [in the third set], and I just made a lot of returns which I hadn't really been doing. His serve slowed down a little bit, and I made more returns. I served well at the beginning of the third set to make sure I stayed ahead, and that was really the only difference."