Murray outclasses misfiring Federer in Shanghai

Murray, who won 6-3 6-2 in 84 minutes, produced a tactical masterclass by enacting an aggressive strategy that his celebrated Swiss opponent had no answer to.

After being beaten by Federer in the final of the Australian Open at the start of the year, Murray has now been able to take a measure of revenge by triumphing in his last two meetings against the world No. 3. His record against Federer is laudable - 13 meetings, eight wins.

Murray made his intentions clear at the start of the match by claiming a break in the opening game, a setback that dealt Federer a blow from which he never truly recovered. Although Murray deserves credit for rattling his opponent throughout with an attacking strategy, Federer contributed to his own downfall by producing a glut of unforced errors.

The 23-year-old Brit has served brilliantly all week - his service statistics from the tournament are peerless - and, having claimed that early break, he never looked in any danger of surrendering the advantage. He closed out the first set in some style, taking the fight to Federer as he stuck rigorously to his pre-match gameplan of acting as the aggressor.

Any early break in the second set handed Murray a 3-1 lead, and appeared to suck much of the fight out of Federer, who was unable to stop aberrations creeping into his game. A second break of the set brought the match to a conclusion, and handed Murray his sixth Masters title.

"I served great, I hit the ball well from the back of the court," Murray said. "Obviously against Roger he's going to be able to dictate plays so you just have to hang in. I managed to do that, and I'm very pleased.

"Yeah [I was deliberately aggressive], against Roger you can't let him get out in front, you need to get after him early. I returned his serve well and got a lot of free points on his first serve. My second serve has improved so much since the start of the year that he wasn't able to take any chances."

Source: espn.co.uk