Sunday 31st January 2010 - 19:35:54
Roger Federer won a record sixteenth Grand Slam title as he beat Britain’s Andy Murray to end his hopes of lifting his first major title.
It was the second time the pair had met in a Grand Slam final, Federer beating Murray in straight sets when they contested the U.S. Open title in 2008.
The pressure of a nation were on the shoulders of the Scot this morning as Britain have waited seventy four years for a male to lift a Grand Slam title.
While Murray was only in his second Grand Slam final, compared to Federer’s twenty second the Scot had reasons to be positive coming into the Australian Open in the form of his career.
It was a tense start from both players as they both broke in the early stages to remain on serve. But it wasn’t long before Federer was in control as he experience started to show.
Neither player’s serve was particularly convincing in the opening set but Murray’s low first serve percentage was once again to be his downfall as he was broken again in the eighth game.
With the first set under his belt Federer produced a tennis master-class in the second set as he demonstrated why he is still world number one.
Serving better and showing off his range of shots Federer had Murray on the back foot as well as on the run.
Winners were coming left right and centre off the Federer racquet and Murray’s head began to drop and he appeared to be struggling with a right thigh problem.
He never called for the trainer but the problem did seem to hamper parts of Murray’s game as he desperately tried to keep Federer in sight.
But the world number one was too string for Murray and he soon opened up a two set to love lead and it looked like another Grand Slam tournament was inevitable.
But the Scot had other ideas as the third set finally saw Murray come to life, much to the delight of the crowd.
He began to read the Federer serve much better and he opened up a 5-2 lead and it looked like a fourth set was on the cards.
But Federer hit back taking three games on the bounce, breaking Murray again, to level the set ant take it into a tie breaker.
Both Murray and Federer were now in full flow the tie breaker was a tight affair that produced some wonderful rallies and outstanding winners from both men.
Murray let five set points pass him by, dumping one sure-fire forehand winner into the net while Federer let his first championship point pass him by.
But after two hours and forty one minutes and 13-11 in the breaker Federer wrapped up the match 6-3 6-4 7-6 (13-11) to win his fourth Australian Open title, his first Grand Slam victory as a father.
Murray struggled to keep his emotions together as he addressed the crowd at the presentation ceremony as he apologised for failing to end the seventy four year drought.
But Federer applauded Murray’s Australian Open title run: "Andy, well done for your incredible tournament. You're too good a player not to win a Grand Slam so don't worry about it.
"I'm over the moon winning this again. I played some of the best tennis again of my life these last two weeks."
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
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