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Cape Town - Andy Murray held off a spirited fightback from Grigor Dimitrov to win the China Open final in straight sets 6-4 7-6 (7-2).
World number two Murray rounded off a perfect tournament by winning the title without dropping a single set.
The victory marked the Scot’s fifth singles title of 2016 and the 40th of his career, but the Bulgarian didn’t give him an easy ride.
Murray is aiming to overtake Novak Djokovic as the number one male tennis player in the world after winning singles titles in Rome, Queen’s, Wimbledon and the OIympics this year.
The victory over Dimitrov - who is resurgent under Murray’s former mentor Dani Vallverdu - took his record to an impressive 59-9 for the season.
In the opening set, Murray capitalised on a poor start from Dimitrov to go a break up early on and, with Dimitrov making 21 unforced errors in the first set, the Scot went on to take it 6-4.
The top seed for the tournament, Murray, went 3-2 up in the second thanks to a break and with him serving for the championship at 5-4; it seemed he had everything under control.
However, from nowhere Dimitrov broke Murray to love and took the set to a tie-break.
Murray wasn’t to be beaten, though, as he steamrolled to victory in the tie-break, taking it 7-2 to win in one hour and 57 minutes.
