Murray stuns Swiss star in straight sets
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| Andy Murray of Britain lifts the championship trophy of the Rolex Shanghai Masters on Sunday. Murray beat former world No 1 Roger Federer of Switzerland 6-3, 6-2 in the final. Placed in the trophy is a Haibo, the mascot doll of the Shanghai World Expo. |
After early exits in the US Open in August and last week's China Open, Andy Murray came to Shanghai feeling like an underdog.
The Briton's performance in the Rolex Shanghai Masters looked more like that of the world's fourth-ranked player, though, as he capped off his stay in China with a 6-3, 6-2 rout of Roger Federer.
"It was obviously a very, very good week, maybe the best during the whole year. You know, tonight's match was, from my side, very solid. I made few mistakes today. As a tournament overall, I am very happy with it," said Murray, who wrapped up the match in a brisk 1 hour, 25 minutes.
Murray showed he was good value for his ranking, taking the title without dropping a set. He defeated Juan Monaco and 12th-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga en route to victory in the final, his third meeting with Federer in top-flight events this year.
His showing in Shanghai also landed him a place in the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals in London and $616,500 in prize money.
Federer had got the better of the Scot in their first three meetings in tour-level finals, including this year's Australian Open. Murray has the momentum now, though, having also defeated the 16-time Grand Slam winner in August in Toronto.
"I enjoy playing (Federer). I don't find it easy at all. It's incredibly difficult every time. But I love the challenges and I don't fear playing against him. I know that I could lose the match if I can't play my best. So maybe every time I go on, I need to play great tennis to win against him," Murray said.
The 23-year-old dominated the match as he won 70 percent of his service points and claimed four of the eight break points he produced to upset Federer in their 13th meeting this season.
Trying to equal Rafael Nadal's record of 18 Masters 1000 titles, Federer played an error-prone match. He failed to match the rampant form that saw him smash second-seeded Novak Djokovic in the semifinals.
The loss also denied Federer his 64th career title, a mark that would have left him level with Pete Sampras in fourth on the Open era title list.
"It doesn't matter. They don't matter much, the score lines," Federer said, seemingly shrugging off the overwhelming loss.
"For those who saw it, they saw a close match with some chances on my side. But (Murray) played well overall. He didn't give me much and he created more chances once he had the break. I missed so many important shots which took a lot of confidence away. Then the targets seemed to get smaller. That's definitely to his credit, a pity for me."
Earlier at the Qizhong Forest Sports City Arena, Austrian Jurgen Melzer and Leander Paes of India defeated Polish duo Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski 7-5, 4-6, 10-5 to cap a dream debut by winning the doubles final.
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