Crown for Roger,tears for Murray

How can you make breaking records look so easy? Ask Roger Federer. He did it on Sunday night,winning his 16th Grand Slam title in straight sets over Andy Murray....

How can you make breaking records look so easy? Ask Roger Federer. He did it on Sunday night,winning his 16th Grand Slam title in straight sets over Andy Murray and perhaps taking the words arguably out of the title of the greatest tennis player ever.

There is little doubt that his place in the history books is secure. By winning his fourth Australian Open,Federer may have his best opportunity ever to join Don Budge 1938 and Rod Laver 1962,69 as the third man to take down the sports Holy Grail: completing a Grand Slam,a sweep of the four major tournaments in the same year.

Its something if it happens,its great; but its not something thats like my No.1 goal, said Federer. Its the same as I havent put a number on how many Grand Slams I want to win. Whatever happens happens. I really want to try to enjoy my end to my career,because Ive reached already so many goals I thought were never possible.

But Federers 6-3 6-4 7-6 11 dusting of Murray here at Melbourne Park should make the younger upstarts on the mens tour insecure. They have spent months talking about how the 28-year-old Federer was distracted,aging and vulnerable,and how 8 to 10 of them were ready to knock him from his throne.

The 22-year-old Murray,who was seeded fifth but rose as high as the No. 2 ranking last year,seemed in position to do it. He had beaten Federer in 6 of their 10 previous meetings. He played phenomenal tennis here,dominating Rafael Nadal before he retired and losing only one set before the final.

But Murray was reduced to tears after being thoroughly outclassed by the world No.1. Murray again carried the hopes of British fans who have been waiting 74 years,since Fred Perry captured the 1936 US Open,for a countryman to win a Grand Slam. I congratulate Roger on all of his accomplishments,and to keep it doing it year after year is incredible and tonight he was a lot better than me, said Murray,choking on his words at the trophy presentation. I can cry like Roger; its just a shame I cant play like him.

Last year,Federer lost an epic five-set clash with Rafael Nadal here,and was so emotionally wrenched by the defeat that he,too,cried at the trophy ceremony and had to be hugged by Nadal.

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There was no crying here Sunday. Im over the moon winning this thing, he said. Ive played some of the best tennis of my life over the last two weeks.

Murray got off to a slow start in the match,saving his best tennis for the third set. But serving for the set at 5-3,he was broken by Federer. In the marathon tie breaker,he got flustered and blew five set points with either mishit shots or poorly timed gambles. He had a chance to force a fourth set in a marathon 13-11 tiebreaker.