Federer's peak play too good for anyone to handle

The 28-year-old Swiss won his 16th grand slam title and fourth at Melbourne Park 6-3 6-4 7-6 (13/11) in two hours and 41 minutes.

Murray allowed the world No 1 to coast through the opening two sets before finally providing stubborn resistance in the third.

But after grabbing the first break in the third set Murray immediately relinquished his advantage and after an enthralling tie-break, when the Scot wasted five set points, his challenge was ended.

The 22-year-old had entered the match in arguably the best form of his career after dropping just one set and eliminating defending champion Rafael Nadal en route to the final.

He had been able to mix aggression with endeavour to coast through those matches, but he simply lacked the class of Federer whose performance offered little reason to hope Murray could end Britain's

74-year wait for a male champion while the Swiss remains at his peak.

Murray's tension showed quickly as a double fault in his opening game saw him easily broken. The fifth seed responded immediately to break back but the muggy conditions, following afternoon showers in Melbourne, slowed up the speed of the balls and both players were content to play long rallies.

That did not help Murray's counterpunching style and he was broken in the eighth game and lost the set.

Federer started to take control of the match and he broke Murray to love in the third game on the way to taking the second set and the pressure was showing on the Scot, who missed a couple of routine groundstrokes and was being run around the court as Federer dictated the play with some perfectly angled shots before sewing up the second set.

Murray finally began to show the form that had catapulted him into the final as he took a lead for the first time when he broke Federer in the sixth game of the third set.

Murray's comeback was, however, immediately deflated as he was broken in the next game with a timid volley allowing Federer to take the set to a tie-break.

An enthralling decider, which lasted 18 minutes, saw Murray pass up five set points before Federer won the match with his third championship point when the Scot blasted a backhand into the net.