Although the British press has put pressure on Andy Murray to be the savior of British tennis, the successor to Tim Henman, and yet the moody Scot has often put as much pressure on himself to play well.  This was a tall order for a player that has come to play during the peak of the Federer-Nadal era.  So strong has their stranglehold on the Slams been that only two players in recent years have been able to take a Slam, namely, Novak Djokovic in 2008 Australian Open and Juan Martin del Potro in last year’s US Open.

Murray had to feel good coming into the Australian Open in 2010.  He was moving better than ever.  He was hitting the ball solid.  And throughout, he played well, beating Rafa in the quarters then topping Marin Cilic in the semifinals.  But, like his first attempt at a Slam in 2008, Murray faced Federer in the finals and lost.  Murray decided to play Federer in his usual steady style, a style that had lead him to a 6-2 head-to-head, admittedly during a down period in Federer’s career.  By the time Murray tried to play more aggressive, Roger was already in a groove and it was too little too late.

Coming into Toronto, it looked like the Murray camp was in disarray.  Miles Maclagan had wondered what his role on the team was, especially with Alex Corretja as the second coach on the team.  They decided to part ways at about the same time Roger Federer announced that he was working with Paul Annacone.

While Murray had looked solid heading into middle rounds of the tournament, there was some concern whether he could actually win the tournament.  He beat Monfils, but played a patchy set, losing 6-0 in the second before closing out that match.  Then came a three-part test of Murray’s effort to defend his title.

Part 1 of the test was a surprise resurgence from David Nalbandian, a player that had recently won DC, and then beating three good players to reach the quarterfinals against Murray.  Nalbandian also had a 2-0 head-to-head record against Murray, though they hadn’t played in 2 years.  Many felt Murray was ripe to go down to the burly Argentine.  However, Murray played aggressive tennis, the kind that he used to beat Nadal in Australia, and took an easy 6-2, 6-2 victory.

Part 2 of the test was the man he lost to in the Wimbledon semis, Rafael Nadal.  He played Rafa aggressively as well, and even as Rafa was able to engineer a break in the second set to bring it back on serve, Murray did not worry, just as he didn’t back in Melbourne.  Murray got a second break and was able to secure the victory against Rafa.

Part 3 was Roger Federer.  Murray hadn’t beaten Roger in their last 3 meetings, losing at the Australian Open final, in the round robin at the ATP World Tour Final, and at Cincinnati last year in the semifinals.  Although Roger had a much tougher road to reach the finals than Murray, despite fiery starts against Berdych and Djokovic and having to come back from a break down in the third to force a third set tiebreak against Berdych, many felt Roger was Roger and he would be able to beat Murray once again.

On form, of course, Murray was playing better.  He was winning matches more handily and Roger was being forced to play third sets in matches that didn’t look like they would last that long.  The only question was how Murray would play Roger in the finals, whether he would revert to the style that had lead to losses or whether he’d play more aggressively.  Although some expected Andy to play more passively, experts assumed Murray had already come to the conclusion that this strategy doesn’t work against Roger anymore and if he wanted the win, he had to force the play.

Roger had recently started working with Paul Annacone, who had been sitting in the player’s box alongside Mirka.  However, he was conspicuously missing today.  Chris Fowler, ESPN commentator, mentioned that Annacone was still splitting duties with the Lawn Tennis Association (of the UK) and was obliged to spend time with them.  Meanwhile, Judy Murray continued to support her son and act as defacto coach, and is expected to travel with her son to Cincy and the US Open (Andy’s parents split up when he was young).

The final itself was a bit patchy as rain delayed the start of the match for about 15 minutes.  Murray got off to a fiery start, almost the reverse of what happened with Federer and Djokovic in the semis when Roger blazed to an easy first set win.  Murray took a 3-0 double break lead and it looked like he might be ready to threaten the Rafa-Roger stranglehold with a flourish.  But Federer came back and played aggressively and got one break back, then at 5-4 down, Federer played another aggressive game when Murray made a few errors and got down 0-30 and eventually gave up the second break.  But much like his match against Nadal, Murray battled in the next game to try to break Federer once more.

Federer was playing very solid game trying to get to 6-5, but had a bizarre drop-shot, slice push that he dumped in the middle of the net, and from there, Murray turned around a game where Federer had game point to breaking Federer.  Murray then served out the first set.  In the second set, both players started off on serve, and at 2-1, 30-0, the rain came down and delayed the match.  Murray was able to serve out that game when the rain came again.  The rain would come one more time, before they finally resumed play.  The two would continue to hold serve until 5-all, when Murray would get triple break point on Federer’s serve.  Fed would save two of those points, but lose the third to 6-5.

However, Federer got Murray down 15-30 on Murray’s serve, then down 30-40, when Murray fired off two big serves to reach match point, but on a crosscourt backhand, Murray decides to hit a drop shot, and it goes into the net, and back to deuce.  Fed goes after a big down-the-line return, but Murray barely reaches it, and gets a good angle on a crosscourt backhand which Fed barely chases down and slices crosscourt.  Murray takes that shot up the line, and as Federer chases it down, he hits the ball into the net, and another match point.  On this match point, Murray works his way into the net, and Federer lobs only to have the ball sail long, and give Murray the match.

This was the first time that Andy Murray had ever beaten Roger Federer in the final, the first time he had beaten Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer in the same tournament, and it was his first tournament win of the year.  With his mother supporting him from the audience, Murray went over to give her a hug, and the smiles that emanated from his face showed relief and joy, finally to put his game together for several great matches and to come through.

Andy Murray now leads the US Open Series points as they head to Cincinnati.  Murray also has results to defend from last year.  He reached the semifinals of Cincy last year, losing to Roger Federer.  Federer is defending champ and beat Djokovic in the finals.  Rafael Nadal lost in the semifinals of Cincy last year, which marked one of the last times the top 4 ranked players reached the semis of the same tournament.

Next week is the second of the two hardcourt Masters 1000 tournaments prior to the US Open held in Cincinnati.  Although Roger Federer will be number 2 in the world on Monday, the draw for Cincy is released the Friday before, so Roger is still seeded 3 in the tournament.  Because he is seeded 3rd, there’s always a chance that he and Rafa could be put on the same half of the draw.  This has only happened once, in this year’s Rome Masters when both Roger (seeded 1) and Rafa (seeded 2) were in the same half.  Roger lost to Gulbis in the second round, so he was never close to meeting Rafa.

The top 8 seeds get byes. Nadal is in the same section as Tomas Berdych.  Masters 1000 draws are so tough that Baghdatis and Cilic are meeting in the opening round, something that doesn’t happen at Slams with 32 seeds and a 128 man draw.  Federer and Davydenko are in the same section.  Davydenko is yet to show the form that he had post US Open into the Australian Open.

In the bottom half, Murray and Verdasco are in the same section, and Djokovic and Soderling are in the same section.  Nalbandian is in this group too but faces a tough opener against Ljubicic.  Andy Roddick is scheduled to return in Cincy and is in Soderling’s part of the draw.

Since Murray was defending champ, his points don’t change.  He was in danger of slipping to number 5 in the world behind Soderling had he lost before the finals.

Overall, an impressive showing by Andy Murray, as we head into Cincy next week, and then one more week at New Haven and then the US Open.

What are the questions to be answered?  First, can Nadal clean up his game?  He played some shaky tennis to beat Wawrinka and Kohlschreiber, and was not on top of his game.  It may have played a role in his loss to Murray.  Second, can Roger clean up his game?  On the one hand, Roger is hitting pretty well, better than he has in a while, and yet, he’s still generating tons of errors.  Roger’s game is error-prone to begin with, but he needs to cut down on it to give himself the best chance to win.  At least Roger is getting into much longer rallies than he did earlier in the year where he seemed to lose points after 3-4 hits.  Third, can Djokovic clean up his game?  You get the story.  All four players took time off after Wimbledon, and only Andy Murray looked pretty sharp.

It will be interesting to see how everyone else does.  Soderling, Gulbis, Nalbandian, even Andy Roddick, also want to get their games in shape for the US Open.

Finally, can Andy Murray play another solid week to go deep into Cincinnati?  He doesn’t want to peak too early, but he doesn’t want to lose early either.

This is shaping up to be an interesting two weeks leading up to the Open.