Federer pays for his errors

“I love the challenge of playing against him. I don’t fear playing him,” Murray said. “I don’t know if my game matches up well against his or not,but I’ve played some of my best tennis against Roger.”

Federer,who will rise one place to No. 2 in the rankings as a result of reaching the final,was attempting to win his 64th career title. That would have tied him with Pete Sampras for fourth on the all-time titles list. After easily beating Robin Soderling in the quarterfinals and Novak Djokovic in the semifinals,Federer struggled to keep the ball in play against Murray,particularly on the forehand side.

Federer hit three forehand errors and a double fault to give Murray a break in the first game of the match. The Scot then broke Federer a second time to win the set by chasing down a drop shot and flicking a forehand into the open court for a winner.

“I got a lot of free points on my serve,” Murray said. “I didn’t give him any chances to go for it. I threw some with a lot of kick on,some slice,some into his forehand.”

Federer had four break chances to come back early in the second set,but Murray saved them all with several well-placed serves and — on the last one — a backhand passing shot down the line to end a lengthy rally. Federer never challenged Murray’s serve again and dropped his own serve twice more to lose the match.

“Missing so many important shots,really,over and over again,obviously took a lot of my confidence away and then the target seemed to get smaller and smaller and that’s definitely to his credit and a pity for me,” Federer said.

After beating Federer in Toronto in August to win his first title of the year,Murray failed to get past the quarterfinals in his next three tournaments,including the US Open,where he lost in the third round.

With his third-round win on Thursday,Murray also became the fourth player to qualify for the ATP World Tour Finals in London next month,joining top-ranked Rafael Nadal,Federer and Djokovic.

Federer was playing his first tournament since losing to Djokovic in the semifinals of the US Open. He has won two titles this year,including the Australian Open,where he defeated Murray in straight sets.