Tennis Update: Shanghai Masters Title- Murray Never Found It Easy Against Federer
Andy Murray got a splendid victory over Roger Federer on Sunday to claim the Shanghai Masters title. Both players reached the final without conceding a set at the tournament but it was Murray from Dunblane who maintained his record. Although Murray had beaten
the Swiss in straight sets, he still believes that it was never easy to play and win against former world number one. It was Murray’s eighth win out of 13 meetings against his third seeded Swiss opponent.
Murray achieved the Shanghai Masters crown impressively with a 6-3 6-2 win in an hour and 25 minutes. Federer was looking forward to equalise Rafael Nadal’s record of eighteen ATP Masters titles and get along with Pete Sampras on the list of Open-Era title
by winning 64th trophy of his career. World number four, Andy Murray is one of the few players who have a hugely impressive winning history against Federer but Murray is adamant that he had found it difficult to play every time he faced Federer.
He insisted that each of his eight wins was the result of fight and struggle.
He said, "I enjoy playing him. I don't find it easy at all. It's incredibly difficult every time. But I love the challenge of playing against him. I don't fear playing him. Every time I go on, I know I need to play great tennis to win against him. I
don't know if my game matches up well against his or not. But I've played some of my best tennis against Roger."
Murray attributed his highly improved second serve for his exceptional victory. He said that he returned Federer’s serves well. He got many free points on his first serve and his second sever had improved so much since the start of this year that Federer
had not been really able to take many chances on it. Murray got a perfect start by beating Federer in first game. As Federer double faulted on his 2nd point, he tried to hold on at 40-15 but handed his opponent a 1-0 lead by losing next three points.
Murray was confident of holding his serve in the second game and got a break point opportunity in the following game but Federer responded brilliantly with a forehand, rescued himself from the tough situation and thus got himself on the score sheet. The
six-time Wimbledon champion gathered his own break point but Murray saw off the danger by making some very fine serves. Federer’s confidence mustered up by taking his next service game to love but he could not face Murray’s serves as the British number one
moved ahead by 4-2. Both men held to make it 5-3 when Federer served in the set, fell victim to Murray’s fine passing shots to get his second break point and won the game by 6-3.
Murray offered chances to Federer to get back into the match by giving break points in his two service games of second set but the Scot very brilliantly saved both. Federer kept the Scot at bay in his first service game but in game four, he hit two wayward
shots as Murray secured another important break. Federer had words with the umpire in frustration of going down by 3-1. His mood turned out to be worse when Murray won the following game to love. The 16-time grand slam champion reduced the loss to 4-2 but
Murray seemed quite confident of his victory and closed out the match by winning the next two games. The 29 year old from Switzerland saved one championship point with a fine forehand but then handed the title to Murray by netting another forehand.
Federer paid tribute to his Scot opponent by saying, "I thought he played well overall, he didn't give me much. I was missing a few too many shots, which I wish I hadn't because that could have definitely maybe swung the momentum around, given me more
confidence to play more forward, more attacking. But missing so many important shots really over and over again obviously took a lot of my confidence away. Then the targets seemed to get smaller and smaller. That's definitely his credit, a pity for me."
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