What a difference a month makes.

Exactly four weeks ago, Andy Murray had played a good first set to give the British fans hope that maybe there might be a British winner of Wimbledon for the first time since before UK joined World War 2.  Federer came back in the second set, and from then on, he pressured Murray even in games that seemed were a clinch for Murray.  Murray wilted under a supremely confident Federer who was trying to defy the common wisdom that Federer was too old to reach number one once again.

The Olympics were a chance for redemption.  Ivan Lendl had told Andy Murray that the biggest pressure he would ever feel was at Wimbledon at his first finals, and after that, it would be better.  Indeed, after a long point had went Federer’s way late in the first set, Murray simply smiled, and that showed he was no longer carrying the weight of the nation, that he could simply go out and play his best.

At the start, however, it was tough to say how this match was going to go.  Right off the bat, Murray found himself down break points.  Given Murray’s habit of serving around 50%, he’s gotten good at fending off break points.  He did it time and again against Djokovic in the semifinals, and he did it again against Federer, to avoid the fans going “Oh no, not again”.

Federer took his first service game pretty easily, sending serves out wide outside the reach of the Scot just as he had done so successfully against del Potro.  If Federer could keep serving like this, he could make Murray’s life a pain once again.  But two things happened.  First, Murray started adjusting for that wide serve and was returning a good percentage of those shots.  Second, Federer started missing his first serves giving Murray ample chances to return.  As the match was making its way to an inevitable result, Federer was barely making a third of his points on second serve, and this seemed to frustrate him, forcing him to go for uncharacteristic shots.

Indeed, everything that was going right for Federer at the Wimbledon final didn’t go right this time around.  He missed first serves.  He struggled to stay in backhand rallies.  He missed numerous forehands.  When Federer starts to miss forehands, you know that some injury has likely crept up, perhaps one reason he announced that he would not play Toronto.  Federer probably knew, in the back of his mind, that his game wasn’t going to be at his best, but perhaps early intimidation might move the momentum his way.

It didn’t happen.

Even the net shots worked in Murray’s favor with every tick slipping over to the Scot’s advantage.  Federer just seemed off his game, and even when he kept in the rallies, Murray moved fantastically chasing down shots, keeping in long rallies, and making incredible gets.

Perhaps the biggest game for Murray to win was a tight game at 2-0 to consolidate a break in the second set.  Murray got down double-break point and fought off six break points to get a key hold.  This was the kind of game that Federer was winning a month ago in the Wimbledon final.  When that Wimbledon match got tight, Federer was confident and made the key breaks.  This time around, the student became the master as Murray was able to play these critical points with confidence and the great Swiss was coming up second.

Federer started to play a bit better in the third set as his serve was better, but Murray got a big break in the middle of the third set, and rode that to the Olympic gold, hitting two big aces at the end to close out his biggest title.

And with that, Britain could cheer their own native son which followed on the heels of a 6 medal performance on Saturday that may have inspired Murray to do his part in the best Olympics the UK has ever had.

In the bronze medal round, Juan Martin del Potro was able to recover from a tough semifinal loss against Roger Federer and beat Novak Djokovic 75 64.  del Potro fell to his knees and began to cry, showing how important an Olympic medal was to him.  In the last Olympics, he was playing in Europe and the US breaking through to become the player he is today, but not high enough in the ranks to play for his country.

Murray now plays in the Olympic mixed doubles final to try for a mixed doubles gold with Laura Robson where they play Max Mirnyi and Victoria Azarenka where they will be an underdog.