Federer downs Murray; wins 16th Grand Slam title

World #1 Roger Federer swept aside the challenge from Andy Murray of Great Britain in collecting his fourth Australian Open title, and adding to his record haul of Grand Slam singles titles that now stand at 16. Federer and Murray engaged in an intense battle that culminated in the best tiebreak played in the tournament before Federer emerged a 6-3, 6-4, 7-6(11) victor. With the win, Federer now holds three of the four Grand Slam tournaments having won in last year's Wimbledon and French Open. He also has a chance to go for the very rare opportunity of winning the calendar Grand Slam.

While Federer won the first two sets in a comfortable manner, he had to come back from 2-5 in the third set to force a tiebreak. The tiebreak was a brilliant affair which featured four set points from Murray and a couple of match points from Federer. In the end, the match didn't go the distance as the crowd would have liked, and Federer had won the Australian Open 2010 singles title in 2 hours, and 41 minutes.

Despite the win, the Swiss #1 still trails Murray 5-6 in their career head-to-head although Federer is 2-0 in their more important Grand Slam meetings, all in championship matches. Federer goes home with AUS$2,100,000 for the win while Murray will get the AUS$1,050,000 runner-up cheque.

Australian Open 2010 Men's Finals Highlights:

- The first and second sets took 43 and 46 minutes to complete. The third set took 72 minutes.
- Federer had 11 aces against 2 double faults, Murray had 10 aces against 4 double faults.
- The #1 was on top in the winner's department, 46 winners against 29 for Murray
- Federer converted 4 of 12 break point opportunities, his rival converted just 2 of 8 opportunities
- The Swiss maestro won a total of 116 points while the Scot won exactly 100 points