Murray serves warning as he downs Federer in China

Both players had not dropped a set at the tournament and the 23-year-old Scot was the one who kept that record intact.

The fourth seed never looked back after breaking his third-seeded Swiss opponent in the first game and went on to triumph 6-3 6-2 in one hour 25 minutes.

"Against Roger you can't let him get out in front," said Murray.

"You have to go after it early.

"I returned his serve well and got a lot of free points on my first serve and my second serve has improved so much since the start of the year that he wasn't really able to take many chances on it."

Murray said that he had been feeling good all week, although there is still keen to increase his endurance.

"I hit a lot of great shots on the run and you need to come up with great shots against Roger if you want to beat him," he added.

Federer was looking to equal Rafael Nadal's record of 18 ATP Masters titles and move joint fourth with Pete Sampras on the open-era titles list with his 64th career crown.

But Murray had other ideas and was hugely impressive in posting his eighth win in 13 meetings with the former world No 1.

Murray got off to the perfect start by breaking Federer in the first game. The Swiss, who double-faulted on his second point, had looked on course to hold at 40-15 but lost the next three points and then produced a poor forehand to hand his opponent a 1-0 lead.

The Scot looked assured in holding serve in the following game and had a break-point opportunity in game three, but Federer responded with a brilliant forehand down the line to rescue the situation and get himself on the scoreboard.

The six-time Wimbledon champion mustered a break point of his own in the following game but Murray came up with a couple of fine serves to see off the danger.

Federer restored some confidence by taking his next service game to love but he could make no inroads on Murray's serve as the British No 1 moved 4-2 ahead.

That became 5-3 when both men held again before Federer, serving to stay in the set, fell victim to some sublime tennis as Murray produced a couple of find passing shots to get his second break and clinch the set 6-3.

Murray handed Federer chances to get back into the match by offering break points in each of his first two service games of set two, but the Scot held his nerve and saved both.

The Swiss kept Murray at bay in his first service game but hit two wayward forehands in game four as the world No 4 secured another vital break.

Federer was becoming frustrated and had words with the umpire after going 3-1 down.

His mood no doubt took a turn for the worse when Murray won the next game to love and, although the 16-time grand slam champion recovered to reduce the arrears to 4-2, Murray was sensing the victory and stormed the next two games to close out the match.

The 29-year-old from Basle saved one championship point with a neat forehand but then netted another forehand to hand Murray the title.

Federer, who will return to world No 2 tomorrow courtesy of reaching the final, paid tribute to his opponent.

"He had an outstanding tournament," he said of Murray.

"It's not easy to win these Masters 1000 tournaments. I know how tough they are to win so congratulations on a great effort.

"I couldn't quite break through. Andy played great. He didn't give me much and made me work extremely hard – going for big shots which I couldn't pull off, which was unfortunate but I still had a great tournament."