Meister der Farbe » needed a win -- for the victory.Unfortunatel

LONDON -- Taking the court as the No. 1-ranked player for the first time, Andy Murray got the job done.The Wimbledon champion was tested for much of his opening match at the ATP finals but still came out on top, playing in his home country and beating Marin Cilic 6-3, 6-2 Monday at the O2 Arena.It was obviously nice to play in that stadium with the crowd like that. It obviously helps, Murray said. After a long, kind of, few months, its nice to know that Im going to be finishing the year playing in that sort of atmosphere.Murray took over at the top of the rankings last week, replacing Novak Djokovic. But the year-end No. 1 ranking is still up for grabs and could be decided on Sunday if both Murray and Djokovic reach the final.The prospect of attaining that, however, doesnt seem to be weighing too heavily on Murrays mind.The last few days, I havent thought about it too much, Murray said. It didnt change much for me.It certainly hasnt affected his ability to win matches. Murray has won a career-high eight titles this season, including a second Wimbledon title in July and a second straight Olympic gold medal in August. Since then, he has won titles in Beijing, Shanghai, Vienna and Paris.The latest victory on Monday didnt come so easy. Murray struggled to win his service games in the first set against Cilic, but still ended up saving all but one of the five break points he faced in the match. On the other side, he converted four of his five break points.When I need to step in, I didnt. When I need to wait a little bit longer, I wasnt waiting, said Cilic, the 2014 U.S. Open champion. The hitting could have been better. Yeah, a little bit unfortunate to go 6-3, 6-2 down, where it felt it was much, much closer in the first set. Beginning of the second, I had couple chances as well.In the early match, Stan Wawrinka finally lost a match at the ATP finals to someone who hasnt been ranked No. 1 in the world. The U.S. Open champion, who has reached the semifinals of the season-ending tournament for the last three years, was beaten by Kei Nishikori 6-2, 6-3.It was not a great match compared to what I can do, thats for sure, said Wawrinka, a three-time Grand Slam champion. I dont think I find anything on the court today. I was a little bit slow on everything. I was hesitating a lot with my game, my movement.Wawrinka holds a 6-7 record at the tournament for the top eight players in the world, but his previous six losses were against Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal -- twice to each.Mondays loss doesnt mean Wawrinka is out of the tournament, but it hurts his chances of finishing the year as the No. 3-ranked player. Wawrinka, Nishikori and Milos Raonic all have a chance to end up one spot behind Murray and Djokovic.Im sure I still have something inside me to play some great tennis before the end of the year, so Im going to try everything for that in the next match, Wawrinka said. Im going to do what I need to do tomorrow to get ready for trying to play better in two days.Nishikori, currently ranked fifth, helped his own chances of reaching that third spot by breaking Wawrinka twice in each set while not allowing a single break point on his serve.Im not thinking too much about rankings, but would be nice if I could finish 4 or 3, Nishikori said. I see good chance to be there if I can play good this week.Andrew Benintendi Jersey . Rob Manfred, baseballs chief operating officer, testified last week during the grievance filed by the players union to overturn Rodriguezs 211-game suspension. A person familiar with the hearing, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press on Saturday that Manfred testified the sport wasnt concerned whether Bosch distributed performance-enhancing drugs to minors because MLBs interest was his relationship with players under investigation. Boston Red Sox Shirts . The 15th-ranked Canadian men lost the opening two games of their European tour: 19-15 to No. 17 Georgia and 21-20 to No. https://www.cheapredsox.com/2411z-ian-kinsler-jersey-red-sox.html . The team says the Spain international has a muscle pull in his right leg. Barcelona hosts third-division side Cartagena in the return leg of their round-of-32 tie after winning their first meeting 4-1. Xander Bogaerts Jersey . -- There were a lot of firsts for the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night. Dwight Evans Red Sox JerseyDOVER, Del. -- While Martin Truex Jr. took the spotlight Sunday at Dover International Speedway, Kyle Busch knows that the spotlight at Dover doesnt mean too much when it comes to the championship.Busch pretty much just did what he had to do in the first three rounds of the Chase for the Sprint Cup last year. Then he won the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway and hoisted the championship trophy.Busch actually had a solid opening round of the Chase in the past three races. His second-place finish Sunday vaulted him to second in the standings prior to the reset where all 12 Chase drivers now have 3,000 points.We finished second here just like we did here last year at this race, Busch said. It was a good points day for us. We were able to move on to the next round and we can keep being able to do that and just get ourselves to Homestead. Thats where it matters the most.The top nine Dover finishers -- Truex, Busch, Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski, Matt Kenseth, Joey Logano, Jimmie Johnson, Austin Dillon and Denny Hamlin -- advanced to the next round of the Chase. Carl Edwards (finished 14th) and Kurt Busch (15th) also did what they had to do to advance.The only Chase driver ahead of that pair, Tony Stewart (13th), needed to do much more to move on.Johnson boasted one of the top cars but a pit-road penalty for the jackman jumping over the wall too soon ruined his day. But it didnt ruin his season as a broken rear axle seal did a year ago when it eliminated him from the Chase at Dover.I feel like one got away but a heck of a lot better than we were sitting last year at this time, Johnson said. We have speed. Its just a matter of cleaning things up. Its just hard to execute at 100 percent, no more, no less.Were getting there for sure.Dillon said after he saw that two contenders ahead of him, Jamie McMurray and Kyle Larson had problems, he didnt push it as hard. He just needed to have the solid finish and knew he would finish ahead of Stewart.I am proud to be going on to the final 12 and having race cars that are capable of moving on, Dillon said. I have three really solid tracks coming up and I am going to drive the wheels off of it and have fun.While those drivers were stoked, some drivers view their races at Dover as a sign that they are good but need to be great.We deserve to move on to the next round, but a day like today really tested us to let us know that weve got work to do, Kurt Busch said. Im ready for the challenge.Edwards advanced with finishes of 15th, sixth and 14th in the three Chase races.Im so grateful that we made it to this next round because now its a 00-0 ballgame, Edwards said.dddddddddddd. We did not run well these first three races.We really struggled. ... Now weve just got to put all of this behind us and go onto Charlotte.Xfinity Series: Daniel Suarez wins to advanceDaniel Suarez earned his second win of the season and maybe the biggest of his career as he will use his victory at Dover to advance to the semifinal round of the Xfinity Chase.Something really good about my team is that we have a lot of chemistry, Suarez said. We dont give up, we work really hard. When we have bad days, we work even harder.I really like my team because we are together -- we win together and weve lost together. We just have a lot of communication. A couple months ago, we were having a lot of conversations because we needed to find more speed and we were working hard to try to make that speed happen.He can take a little time finding that speed. He doesnt have to worry about anything next week at Charlotte.Suarez and Elliott Sadler are locked into the semifinal round of eight drivers. Justin Allgaier has a 17-point cushion on ninth-place Ty Dillon, with Brendan Gaughan (+14), Ryan Reed (+11), Darrell Wallace Jr. (+10), Blake Koch (+4) and Brennan Poole (+3).Dillon will need to make up three points on Poole, while Erik Jones is four points back, Ryan Sieg at 10 points behind and Brandon Jones 18 points back.Camping World Truck Series: First non-Chaser winTyler Reddick won the truck race at Las Vegas, a win that had no bearing on the Chase in the sense that Reddick wasnt one of the eight Chase drivers in the field.Reddick outlasted his Brad Keselowski Racing teammate Daniel Hemric -- one of the eight Chase drivers who really needed a win -- for the victory.Unfortunately I was a spoiler for our teammate, Reddick said. He was right behind us and could have gotten into the next round. ... Its just really great to win. Its a great feeling.Only two drivers will be eliminated after the next race -- in three weeks at Talladega.Christopher Bell has a 25-point cushion on seventh-place Hemric, who would be one of the two drivers out. Matt Crafton (+24), Ben Kennedy (+18), Timothy Peters (+16) and Johnny Sauter (+15) would have good cushions if the next race wasnt Talladega. Hemric and John Huter Nemechek are tied at 15 points behind the cutoff.We werent very happy about [not making the Chase], but that just speaks volumes for the guys and Tyler -- they just dig in harder and go win, Reddick crew chief Doug Randolph said. ' ' '