The 2010 Australian Open final between 15 time grand slam winner Roger Federer and Andy Murray will take place on the Rod Laver Arena tomorrow at 19:30 local time (8.30am UK time).

Andy Murray will be attempting to end the 74 year old wait for a British grand slam winner, whilst Roger Federer will be trying for his 4th title in Melbourne and extending his record number of slams to his name.

One stat that surely stands out more than any other is that when Roger Federer one his first grand slam he was aged 22 and competing in his 17th grand slam. Andy Murray is currently 22 and the Australian Open is the Scot’s 17th grand slam. The question is can Andy Murray emulate Federer?

The bookmakers see it has more likely that Murray will have to wait a little longer to claim that elusive first grand slam, with tradional bookies seeing Roger Federer favorite at 4/7 and Murray’s chances ranging from 6/5 to 3/2, though Betfair is offering even better odds than that.

Over the last 5 years the only thing that has changed about British players success in grand slams is the increase in the number of years since a British player lifted a grand slam trophy.

When Andy Murray burst onto the tennis scene in the summer of 2005, the question being asked then was – Can Andy Murray end Britain’s 69 year wait for a grand slam winner? It’s now 74 years since Fred Perry lifted his grand slam title and the debate over Andy Murray’s grand slam chances has never stopped.

Murray has ended one 72 year old record this week, not since Henry ‘Bunny’ Austin had a British player reached two grand slam finals – Murray reached his first slam final 17 months ago at the US Open, that day he fell short against the then 12 time grand slam champion Roger Federer.

Since that final Federer has reached every grand slam final and is now a 15 time grand slam champion, whilst Murray has failed to reach the grand slam heights that many predicted losing in the last 4 slams to players he regularly beats and ranked lower than the Scot.

Murray’s 2009 was his most successful year to date, with 6 titles and a brief spell as the world number 2, but despite those accomplishments 2009 will remain as the year that Murray did not win a grand slam. Many great things were predicted for Murray in 2009 including winning the Australian Open, he was favorite in many peoples eyes going into the event, but Murray lost in the 4th round to Fernando Verdasco a player he had beaten 6 times in a row.

2010 is starting how many people expected 2009 to start – Will 2009 be the last year that Murray did not win a grand slam?

Roger Federer’s five-year unbeaten reign at the US Open came to a dramatic five sets conclusion Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro claimed his first Grand Slam title.

Del Potro twice fought back from a set down to win 3-6 7-6 (7-5) 4-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-2. and also becoming the first man other than Rafael Nadal to beat Federer in the final of a Grand Slam tournament.

Del Potro’s performance all the more impressive as this the 20-year olds maiden Grand Slam final and first victory over Roger Federer – Now that is pulling out a performance when it really matters. After winning the 2009 US Open an emotional Del Potro said

I had two dreams this week, One was to win the US Open and the other one is to be like Roger. One is done, but I need to improve a lot to be like you, You fought until the final point. You are a great champion. I’m very happy to be here with this crown, with these people, on this court. This will be in my mind forever.

A slightly less emotional Federer said

I would like to congratulate Juan Martin on an unbelievable tournament. I had a great one but he was the best. I would have never believed I could win five in a row here. It has been an amazing run for me. I was two points from the match today. That’s the way it goes sometimes. But I’ve had an unbelievable run this year. Being in all major finals and winning two of those. Sure, I would have loved to win those two as well. But the year has been amazing already. Got married and had kids, don’t know how much more I want.

As for Andy Murray – this will go down as surely his most disappointing grand slam performance yet, the wrist injury may yet explain is poor showing but the way he went out as put a huge dent in his grand slam credibility.

Andy Murray failed to produce his best tennis and fell at the last hurdle losing the US Open final to former world number 1 Roger Federer 6-2, 7-5, 6-2.

Federer has now won a record breaking 5 consecutive US Open titles adding to that his 5 consecutive Wimbledon titles making him the first player ever to win 5 consecutive grand slam titles at two grand slam events.

Although Federer played some of his best tennis, Murray never quite hit the form that seen him beat Rafael Nadal yesterday. The biggest weakness was on his serve, he failed to win any easy points with it and got into trouble far too often. His first serve % was low and it was back to that all too familiar weak second serve.

Despite this Murray has his chances and will have nightmares about not converting one of the three break points in the second set when he has 0-40 on the Federer’s serve.

If we have learned anything about Murray this year, it’s that the Scot learns his lessons and always comes back stronger, it won’t be long before we can say the Andy Murray, Grand Slam Champion. After the match Murray said,

I had a great tournament but I came up against, in my opinion, the best player ever to play game the today, I got the better of him the last two times and he definitely set the record straight today. I’ve learnt I’ve got a lot of improving to do if I want to win one of these things. I love playing in front of this crowd – it’s been the best time of my life.

The sun has set on Andy Murray’s US open and the young man from Dunblane can walk away with his head held high, he couldn’t quite deliver the UK’s first grand slam male singles title for 72 years, but it is surely just a matter of time before the 21 year secures that elusive title.

The match itself got of to a bad start for Murray, with the first set going all the way of the former world number 1. From the off Federer looked on omnious form, holding serve comfortably and making Murray work twice as hard for the Scot even to win a point his own serve. The Swiss ace managed his first chance of a break of serve in just Murray’s second service game, though like Murray had did yesterday against Nadal, a big first serve saved the Scotsman.

That was just delaying the inevatable though in Murray’s next service game a double fault gave Federer a 0-30 lead and soon Federer had his 2nd and 3rd break point, he only needed one, breaking the Scot to 15 for the first blood in the match. It soon got worse for grand slam final virgin, he was broken again in the 8th game and Federer claimed the set 6-2.

The situation did not get any better for Murray as he was broken yet again in his opening service game of the second set. Federer had now broken Murray more times than the Scot had actual games on the board.

Murray breaks back to love and all of a sudden Murray had found his feet in this final, he holds his serve comfortably in the next game and then take the great Roger Federer to 0-40 again on the Number 2’s serve. He is the great Roger Federer though and save them all he did. Though the rally in point at 15-40 looked like Federer hit two balls long, Murray reluctant to challenge as he was still in the point, with no hawk eye replay we’ll never know if they were out. This Murray’s big chance to take the lead in the set and would have completely changed the complex of the match. Murray still with some work to do mentally on handling those big points.

After losing vital break point chnaces against Nadal Murray was broken in his next service game, but champions learn from their mistakes and Murray held his service game to keep the set level at 3-3.

The next few games went with serve, though Murray did look the more likley to break, he didnt though and with score at 6-5, the Scot needed to hold serve to take the set into a tiebreaker. Murray folded and gave his serve up to love with Federer being ultra aggresive. Another shot form Federer looked out at 0-15 and again Murray failed to challange. The set was over and Murray now had a mountain to climb.

Climbing mountains is what Murray does best though, he is Scottish after all! He was’nt satisfied though to just climb Ben Nevis, he wanted to climb Mount Everest, the tallest mountain of all. And in tennis terms that would be not only beating Federer from 2 sets to nil down but also a break down in the third set. Thats what happened as in the second set the Scot dropped his serve on his opening service game of the third set and Federer had 3-0 lead.

I’m not quite sure what mountain would describe having to beat Roger Federer from two sets down and 5-0 down. I don’t think that even Sir Edmund Hillary could have climbed that mountain.

Murray was giving it a go though, he held his next service game, to get his name on the board and then did something he had only managed to do once in the match so far, he broke the Federer serve to pull the score back to 5-2, he then saved one match point before secumbing to the greatest player of the 21st centuary.

Andy Murray, the Scottish tennis sensation has just beaten the best player of 2008 and all that stands between him and his first ever grand slam title is the best player of the 21st century. Murray will take on Roger Federer this evening at 5pm (10pm UK time) on the 22,000 all seater Arthur Ashe Stadium Court.

The Swiss number 1 was world number 1 for more than 4 years, 237 consecutive weeks as the best player in the world – he has competed in every semi final of a major for the last 4 and half years and only failed to reach the final once in the last 14 grand slams and only lost a final to one man Rafael Nadal.

He is bidding to win an unbelievable 5th consecutive US open title and set new a record in the sport, an achievement that would go a long way to heal the wounds of a poor season by Roger Federer’s standards.

Murray will of course go into the match as underdog, but the Scot does hold a winning record against Federer, they have met three times and Murray has won their last two encounters.

Their first match was in the Bangkok final in 2005, when a teenage Andy Murray lost 6-3 7-5, they then met in Cincinnati in 2006, Murray this time beating the Swiss ace 7-5 6-4 – it was first real result that proved Murray could mix with best.

Most recently the duo met in Dubai earlier this year and Murray once again won 6-7(8-6) 6-3 6-4, it was after this match that Federer openly criticised Murray for being too negative, an unimpressed Federer said,

I don’t think that he’s changed his game a whole lot since I played him in the Bangkok final, ‘Not that I’m disappointed but I really would have thought he would have changed it in some ways. It sort of works for him but he’s going to have to grind very hard for the next few years if he keeps playing that way. He stands way far behind on the court and that means you’ve got to do a lot of running. He tends to wait a lot for an opponent’s mistake. I gave him the mistakes in the match, but over a 15-year career, you want to look to win a point more often than wait for the guy to miss. That’s what has served me well, but who knows, he may surprise us and do it for 20 years.

The odds of Murray win tonight is a testament to his recent form, any other first time grand slam finalists playing the great Roger Federer in the US Open would be very long. Murray is only a 7/4 outshot, with Federer 1/2 on to win. This is an event that Roger Federer has not lost a match at in the last 5 years.

Britain enjoys nothing more than hyping up anyone who shows any signs of sporting talent only to berate them when the much desired success is not achieved. Tim Henman knows all too well about this, more recently Lewis Hamilton suffered the backlash of the UK press for not winning the F1 championship last season. The England football team goes through the same torture every 2 years, with the press enjoying nothing more than getting all of England into a frenzy and convinced there is only one winner only to vilify the team and manager when they ultimately fail to achieve success.

Murray will not follow this pattern though after all he is not English – he is proudly Scottish!

Being Scottish has not stopped the British press hyping him up only to knock him down when success did not come immediately after breaking on to the tennis scene at Wimbledon 2005. At 21 he has not yet won a major and up until a week ago the majority of tennis press wrote of his chances of ever winning one.

Over the last three years Murray has very much still been growing and developing, he has steadily increased his year end ATP rankings and beat the top players on quite consistent basis. Though only thing that much of the Brittish press could write was Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic have won majors at a younger age, so Murray is ruubish and will never win a major.

Tonight Andy Murray will win his first grand slam title, the huge amount of pressure placed on Murray to win will be huge and while pressure has made guys like Tim Henman crack under the enormous weight of expectation – Murray ignores most of the hype and almost thrives on the scale of the occasion.

I predicated an Andy Murray win against Rafael Nadal and I predict the first ever Scottish US Open Champion tonight. The long awaited British grand slam champion will arrive and he is 100 miles away from Tim Henman and what the world may have expected him to be.

Come on Murray!

Andy Murray overcame some sloppy serving to clinch a straight sets victory over veteran Thomas Johansson 6-4 6-4 at the Rogers Cup in Toronto.

Murray struggled with his serve throughout and was broken on 3 occasions despite serving at 62% first serves he only managed to win 71% of those points and only win 31% of second serves. Murray though was down a double break in the second set and yet he battled through breaking the Swede in 5 times. After the match Murray said.

I was happy with the way I came back, Thomas is tough on hard courts, so I knew I’d have to up my game especially in the second set when I went behind. 

Andy Murray and Brother Jamie are both Olympic bound and are competing together in the doubles here at the Rogers Cup. Murray added

I’m looking forward to the Olympics – it’s going to be a great experience, I like playing indoors, I’ve won four out of my five tournaments indoors.

Andy Murray will next paly Stanislas Wawrinka, and after that he has a doubles match with brother Jamie, against second seeds Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic.

On the other side of the draw Roger Federer opened his hard court season with a loss, he crashed out to unseeded Frenchman Gilles Simon, 2-6 7-5 6-4 in the second round.

Federer’s number 1 spot will now be at real risk as he made the finals here last year, though because of a change in schedule to accommodate the Olympics, Federer will not lose his points gained here last year until the second week of August (the week when the tournament was played last year).

If Rafael Nadal can win this week, he will effectively cut the gap to 300 points, this was 1,445 points in January. With the Masters event in Indianapolis and the US open coming up, both these tournaments won by Federer, anything less than a win in both these events will likely see Nadal gain that top spot. Though even winning the events will not guarantee that Federer will stay number 1.