Murray crushes record World Number 1 Federer, claims Shanghai trophy
After Britain’s Number 1 player, Andy Murray defeated his 2010 Shanghai Rolex Masters semi final opponent Juan Monaco, he touted former World Number 1 Roger Federer as his choice of opponent for the event’s final, saying, “Novak has been playing great and
that (semi-final) is going to be a really tough match. But I enjoy playing Roger; it's a great experience every time against him. It's always great fun, so I wouldn't mind playing Roger”. While many may dismiss this as a brash risk, or unadulterated overconfidence,
Murray proved that it was no such thing: he stunned the World Number 2 in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2, for a runaway victory at the tournament.
The World Number 4 took less than 90 minutes to defeat his Swiss opponent, taking away two simultaneous victories: he won his second title of the year, and scored his second successive defeat on Federer at a Masters final, in a repeat of his Toronto match
against the player in August. Had Federer won, he would have drawn parallel with current World Number 1 Rafael Nadal with an all-time best of 18 Masters Titles.
Federer’s playing at the Qi Zhong Centre was slipshod and careless, with 30 unforced errors and failures on all six of his break points. Murray, on the other hand, broke four times and dominated the match with 20 winners.
The Murray-Federer competition is now titled in Murray’s favour, 8-5. However, Federer did beat Murray in the match that mattered most; the Australian Open final, thus taking away his chance of winning the Grand Slam which would prove him as a player. However,
Murray remains hopeful and determined, saying, “I think I have the ability to win them. Beating guys like Roger, beating guys like Rafa, gives you confidence that when you do play them in the big tournaments, that you will beat them. You know, I need to, yeah,
just play my best tennis at a Grand Slam. It's down to me to do that. But it's a tough thing to do.”
This defeat notched Federer down to 2-4 in this year’s finals, whereas Murray up-scaled his season record to 41-14. The Maestro admitted that he had been outplayed during the Sunday match, saying, “I had some chances but I couldn’t break through. He played
great and didn’t give me much. He made me work hard, I couldn’t find many great shots, he was too good. But I still had a good week and beat some good players.” Perhaps Federer’s one consolation is that he has fought his way back up over Novak Djokovic, to
regain his position as World Number 2.
Murray himself seems upbeat and confident after his victory, saying, “It was obviously a very, very good week. The match was, from my side, very solid. Roger had a couple of chances to get back in the first set. It was obviously a great, great match for
me. I made a few mistakes but as a tournament overall I’m very happy with it. I had to play great to have a chance against Roger. But I was able to do that today.”
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