Andy Murray has revealed he was struggling with a shoulder injury during the Cincinnati Masters final.
Murray went unbeaten in 22 matches from the French Open final in June - which he lost to Novak Djokovic - to the reverse in Cincinnati on Sunday night.
It was a run which included a Queen's title, his second Wimbledon championship and a second Olympic gold medal.
The Scotsman came up short in the United States but has since confirmed he was not operating a full fitness.
"I'm very proud of this week," said Murray. "Obviously today it didn't go how I would've wanted. But I certainly didn't expect to get to the final when I arrived here.
"After the first match I played, I was having problems with my shoulder.
"I did speak about it with my team, but my physio was pretty confident that it was just fatigue, and that I didn't have any sort of structural damage in my shoulder.
"When it was said that I wasn't going to make it worse by playing, I thought: 'Let's go for it this week. Let's try and get through as many matches as we can."