Andy Murray continued his dominance of the start of the 2009 tennis season with a straight forward straight sets victory over world number 3 Novak Djokovic and claim the Miami masters title.

Murray beat Djokovic 6-2 7-5 in 103 minutes.

This is arguably the biggest title of his Murray’s career to date, the Sony Ericsson Open is affectionately known as the “Fifth Slam” attracting all of the top players every year.

Miami is Murray third Masters title, following wins in Cincinnati and Madrid last year.

Murray dominated the first set in searing heat winning the first set in quick time. The second set proved more tricky and was seemingly going the way of Djokovic with Murray trailing 5-2, but the Scot hut back to win the last 5 games and claim the title.

After his win Murray spoke in front of the capacity crowd,

“The conditions here are so tough – I know sitting there is difficult but running around is pretty tricky too….He started to come to the net a lot more and I lost my timing a little bit and I started to find it a little bit difficult towards the end of the second set…..I’m training very hard to try and do that (win a slam) but there are so many great players just now – Novak, Rafa, Roger – and they’ve been dominating the Slams for the last few years, It would be nice to get in there and take one.”

Andy now heads back to Europe for the start of the clay-court season and will new his partership with Alex Coretja as he trys to come to grips with the red stuff.

Andy Murray took a huge step forward in his young tennis career, answering his critics and squashing the scepticism of some negative British tennis press to record his first win at an elite masters event.

The British number one recorded an outstanding victory over the world number 3 Novak Djokovic in 2 very closely fought sets winning 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-5) in two hours and 23 minutes.

It was only two months ago that many British tennis Journalists questioned whether Andy Murray could win at the top level - rather than see the potential and focus on his successes, they criticised his on court manner, his coaching choice and his autobiography.

Today he answered them in fine style. Two weeks ago Roger Federer was world number 1 and Andy Murray had never beaten Novak Djokovic and the young Serb had inflicted heavy defeats on Murray in their last 3 meetings.  Though times are a changing in the tennis world, roll on two weeks and Roger Federer’s reign at number 1 is coming to an end and Novak Djokovic has just lost twice to Andy Murray.

The scot started the match the better and looked the most likely to break first. He got carved out his first chance in game five, but was not able to convert and again in the 7th game forcing another chance, though again Djokovicclosed the door on Murray. Throughout this period Murray was holding his own serve with ease and would have been disappointed not secure the break. Not break of serve would mean a tie break was needed to separate the two - In many a similar match, the best player in the set doesn’t always win the set but this was not the case today. Murray remained ice cool, breaking immediately in the tie break and continuing is high level of service. Murray raced in a 5-1 lead at the changeover and soon wrapped up the set.

Djokovic, the current world number 3 and Australian Open champion rallied in the second set and managed to secure the first break of the match, to go up 2-1. But as we have seen Murray do on a few occasions in the last two weeks, the Scot broke back immediately. Andy turned up the heat in the eighth game securing a second break after some typical Murray scrambling that seen Djokovic eventually net an attempted smash. Murray was now serving for the match and the pressure started to toll, he played his first poor service game of the day that included two double faults and missed four match points before Djokovic broke back. On one of those match points though, a drop shot from Djokovic hit the net only to drop on Murray’s serve – the Scot missing out on victory by centimeters.

It should have been a shattering blow for the Briton at that point the bookmakers odds would have swung in favour of Djokovic, with his spirit crushed few would be surprised if Murray had went on to lose at this point.  As confidence flowed through Djokovic, Murray held his nerve and managed to force a second tie-break.

The tiebreak was as close as the whole match and the score stood at 4-4, the next point saw the Scot win an epic rally with an outstanding backhand winner. He then earned two match points after Djokovic double faulted – Murray needed both those points to win and on his sixth match point Murray secured a landmark win with a thumping volley.

The talk now will be is the big 3 now the big 4. At this very moment Andy Murray is comfortably in the top 2 players in the world. In the last two months Murray has only been beaten by one man, Rafael Nadal. Andy Murray has not suffered a loss to anyone other than the soon to be number 1 since the French Open and is now the only player other Rafael Nadal to win a main event since the Rome masters on the 5th of May.

It’s huge because to win these tournaments is tough nowadays, ‘ve played five days in these conditions and had eight or nine matches in the last couple of weeks. But I’ve put in the physical work and it’s paid off. I got very nervous and he was hitting the ball really big but I hung in well, It was tough for both of us and there were a lot of long rallies. Your legs really burn out there and they were some of the hardest conditions of the year. But I stayed calm throughout and didn’t waste any energy – especially when I went behind in a couple of matches.  In the past maybe I’d have let that get to me but now I’m playing top players on a regular basis and I’m better equipped.

Andy Murray will take on Novak Djokovic in his first ever masters event final later today in Cincinnati. This will be the second time he has met Novak Djokovic in as many weeks. The match will start around 3pm local time (8pm UK time) and will be shown live on Sky Sports.

Djokovic made the final with a commanding victory over Rafael Nadal, 6-1 7-5 in the semi finals. This ended Nadal’s run of 32 straight victories, which included two grand slam wins. Djokovic is the first player to beat Nadal since Juan Carlos Ferrero beat Nadal back in early May at the Rome masters.

Up until last week Murray had not beaten Djokovic and lost heavily in their last 3 matches, but Murray turned it around last week recording a memorable victory, winning the match 6-3 7-6 (7-3). Strangely all their matches have all been at Masters events, their first encounter was back in 2006 at the quarter finals at the Madrid masters Murray lost 1-6 7-5 6-3 and was the only set Murray had won until last week.

In 2007 followed 2 back to back semi finals in Miami and Indian wells, where Djokovic really took Murray apart, in Miami he won 6-2 6-3 before almost whitewashing Murray 6-1 6-0 in Indian wells. Then earlier this year at the Monte Carlo masters event played on clay the result was another easy win for Djokovic 6-0 6-4.

The bookmakers still see the 21 year old Djokovic, one week younger than Andy Murray, as the odds on favorite to win today. Though last week you could get as high as  9/2  on a Murray win, this week its much less and the best odds are around 9/4 mark.

Andy Murray broke his hoodoo against defending Rogers Cup champion Novak Djokovic in spectacular style tonight (early morning in the UK) as he moved into the semi finals of the Toronto Masters event, the Rogers Cup and a meeting with the Wimbledon champion Rafael Nadal and soon to be likely world number 1.

Murray headed into the match with a 4 out of 4 losses record to Djokovic and only managed to win 10 games in the last three meeting, so the chances of Murray progressing seemed slim, but the world number 9 answered his critics and stepped up to the plate to record a memorable victory winning the match 6-3 7-6 (7-3)

Murray asserted his dominance from the start and a faultless first 3 games seen him rush into a 3-0 lead and it seemed that finally Murray had broken his Djokovic’s Hoodoo. Murray secured the first set 6-3 and quickly broke Djokovic early in the second set.

The serve of Andy Murray still remains his weakness and Djokovic immediately broke back and with previous history between these two players, the signs did not look good as Djokovic started to hold serve more comfortably and Murray struggle on his – A Murray collapse looked possible and his mind could have wondered.

But that doesn’t happen that much now, especially when it comes to playing the top players, Murray remained focused on the task, kept his talking to a minimum and looked to break Djokovic again.

Break him again he did to take a 4-3 lead, but the world number 3 Serbian would not lie down and broke Murray straight back to level at 4-4. Djokovic would hold serve again forcing Murray to serve to stay in the match, Murray would face set points as Djokovic carved out another break point opportunity.

Andy Murray would not lie down and he closed the door on Djokovic and forced the tie break. The young Scot dominated the breaker and rushed into 6-1 lead. Djokovic would save the first two match points, but not the third.

Murray had finally beaten the Serb and perhaps made that move from top 10 player to top 5 player that many critics have said he couldn’t do. After the match Andy said,

It is a huge win for me, especially mentally, He has beaten me comfortably a few times in the last year or so. So to win against him in straight sets, especially when he came back really well in the second set, was very pleasing.

Andy Murray will once again face friend and rival Novak Djokovontoic trying to break his duct against the world number 3 Serbian.

The pair will play their quarter final match on the center court of the Toronto event around 7pm local time (Midnight UK time).

Murray has played Djokovic 4 times and has failed to record a victory on each occasion. He has not won a set in the last three matches and was well and truly beaten in those matches.

Strangely all their matches have all been at Masters events, their first encounter was back in 2006 at the quarter finals at the Madrid masters and this was the closest match they ever played, Murray losing eventually 1-6 7-5 6-3.

Then followed 2 back to semi finals in the masters event in Miami and Indian wells, where Djokovic really took Murray apart, in Miami he won 6-2 6-3 before almost whitewashing Murray 6-1 6-0 in Indian wells.

Their most recent match was earlier this year in the Monte Carlo masters event, this time the match was played on clay and Murray was major underdog on the red stuff, the result was another easy win for Djokovic 6-0 6-4.

With Murray barely able to win a game against Djokovic, it’s no surprise that the bookmakers have the current Australian Open as over whelming favorite. As usual Betfair has the best available odds and are still offering a free £25 to new customers.