Murray’s camp probably didn’t expect this.

After the quarterfinal matches, many felt that Berdych was peaking, hitting hard shots, having upset Roger Federer in four sets.  Berdych had given Murray problems in the past.  He had a 4-2 head-to-head.  Berdych’s power is something most players struggle against, but he plays so up-and-down that lesser players have taken him down.  Berdych had fell from the form that lead him to the semis of the 2010 French Open and the finals of the 2010 Wimbledon where he beat Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic en route to a Rafael Nadal loss.

Weather experts had predicted there would be rain on Saturday even as early as Thursday.  By Friday, the start time had been moved back from 12:30 PM back to 11 in a move similar to 2008.  It was felt, given reasonably match lengths, that players might be able to finish by 5-6 PM and avoid the rains.

Instead, rain hit around 10 AM and caused the start time to be pushed back nearly to the original 12:30 PM time slot.

Despite clearing the court of rain, wind was still kicking up making this a tough match.  Instead of playing attacking tennis, and it’s not clear Murray would have done that, even in ideal conditions, Murray opted to slice and dice, hoping the off-pace shots would disrupt the Czech’s rhythm, as both struggled with wind.

Early in the first set, Murray secured an early break.  Murray was ready to secure the break by hitting a drop shot on game point.  However, as he hit the drop shot, the wind blew his cap off.  Pascal Maria, the umpire, said Berdych was too far away for this to matter and he would have lost the point anyway.  Berdych disagreed.  Murray eventually relented after asking Berdych if he was sure that his cap bothered him.  Berdych came back with a break, and from that point on, Murray did without the hat.

As it turns out, Murray has had similar wardrobe malfunctions in the past as in one event where he had a tennis ball fall out of his pocket and eventually let the ball kids toss him balls separately on first and second serves.

Murray has historically said the cap doesn’t provide that much shielding from the sun, so he often doesn’t wear it.  Murray chose to do without the rest of the match.

Berdych, as it turned out, was also struggling with the wind.  He had to lower the pace of his serve, and not go for as big a shot while Murray sliced, or pulled him to the edges.  Berdych looked like he was being yanked this way and that.

However, in the first set, the two kept even until Berdych played a few aggressive points to secure the first set.  This seemed like it might be the theme of the match, but with the win, Berdych struggled to keep the ball in play, and Murray broke and broke and took the second and third sets, 62 and 61.

The fourth set looked almost the same.  Murray got an early break and lead 30 with break changes to get to 40 and put the match out of reach.  Berdych, however, held his serve.  With the wind decreasing some, Berdych’s serve and forehand were starting to exert more pressure.  Berdych was able to break back.  From then on, the two were holding serve and the match, which seemed certainly in Murray’s pocket, was threatening to go to a fifth set.

As they started the tiebreak, Berdych began with a huge return, securing a mini-break.  Although he got it back, he lost it again, as Berdych went up 4-1.  Murray would hold another point to 4-2, but Berdych would get a second chance to serve when a let is called due to paper flying.  Berdych settled and hit an ace to 5-2.  Murray then held firm and took the next two points, the first by pulling Berdych wide to his forehand, then wide to the backhand.  Murray jammed Berdych on the next serve.

Berdych missed the first serve, and on the second, Murray attacked with an angled backhand return to 5-all.  Berdych took the next point to 6-5.  Murray then took the next two points to 7-6.  Berdych hits another good serve to 7-all.  Murray gets the next point at 8-7, then sees a Berdych forehand sail long as he takes the tiebreak–and the match, 9-7 in the tiebreak.

With the wind, Murray nullified Berdych’s power play as Berdych was forced, for most of the match, to play a bit passively.  Only in the fourth set, when Berdych played big, did the match get really close and there was a hint it might go a fifth set.

Credit Berdych for not getting frustrated despite the tough conditions.

The match lasted over 4 hours, but not because there were huge rallies a la Tipsarevic and Ferrer.  Instead, due to the wind, there were long breaks between points as players had to redo their tosses or wait until the wind settled down to serve.

Murray and Berdych were quickly taken off the court without interviews to expedite Ferrer and Djokovic on the court as soon as possible.

Djokovic started off tentative and went down a break.  He would go down a second break and down 5-2 with Ferrer ready to serve out the match when the match was postponed until Sunday as officials felt the rain was expected to stay long-term.  The match has been rescheduled for 11 AM on Sunday, thus guaranteeing another delayed final at the US Open for the fifth year in a row.

With this final, Murray has had his most successful year ever.  Murray has never reached two Slam finals in any year.  He reached the 2008 US Open final, the 2010 Australian Open final, the 2011 Australian Open final, and now the 2012 Wimbledon and US Open final.