It took Andy Murray four hours to beat Roger Federer for the first time in a grand slam match, and, looking unusually dispirited afterwards, he admitted he would need a decent rest to recover from the fractious finish to his semi-final if he is to take the Australian Open title away from Novak Djokovic on Sunday.
Murray is bidding to become the first player since Lew Hoad in 1956 to win a second slam title immediately after his first, which he secured against Djokovic on that memorable night four months ago in New York. But he had little time for history after surviving a brutal physical and mental examination by Federer on Friday night.
An ugly confrontation towards the end of their see-sawing five-setter clearly ruined the Scot's mood, even on Burns Night. Neither player, though, would break the sport's protocol of niceness later, and Murray deflected questions about the angry exchange of words and glances when he failed to serve out the match at 6-5 in the fourth set.
Just before he had passed Federer with a perfect forehand, and the Swiss mouthed something inaudible (understood to be "Fucking stop" with the BBC moved to apologise for the language during their broadcast), then Murray made an ugly face at him.
The Swiss upped his level considerably, broke, held and won the tie-break to force a fifth set. The mood for the remainder of the match was uglier than in any of their previous 19 encounters. Murray won 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-7 (2), 6-2, a fair reflection of the rhythm of the struggle.
"It was a long, long match," Murray said. "It's a very late finish. I'm tired. I don't want to be wasting any energy, because I'll need all of it if I want to win against Novak on Sunday.
"Stuff like that happens daily in tennis matches," he added, refusing to confirm what Federer had said to him. "It was very, very mild in comparison to what happens in other sports. It's not relevant what he said. It doesn't really matter. It didn't rattle me, but he definitely raised his level."
Federer said: "We just looked at each other one time. That's OK, I think, in a [four-hour] match. We were just checking each other out for a bit. That wasn't a big deal for me. I hope not for him."
The suggestion that he might be slipping from the upper echelons, alongside Murray, Djokovic and the absent Rafael Nadal, was batted away neatly. "Nothing has changed. I've played these guys, what, 60 times, the three guys around me in the rankings. So we know each other really well. We play each other very close very often. We keep on trading wins and losses."
Murray's coach, Ivan Lendl, said: "Playing Roger is never easy and he stepped it up when he had to. Andy was fortunately able to produce when he had to as well. What pleased me most? Winning the last point.
"He did well to come back in the fifth set after twice leading but that is what he trained for. He trained for it physically and he trained for it mentally. He tried to focus on every point in practice, then it is easier in the matches that way. That is what you have got to do."
Federer spoke earlier in the tournament about the refreshing sense of fair play on court and respect in the locker room that characterises the sport, but there was a definite edge to this match. Both seemed to thrive on it. Asked if he would like tennis to be more confrontational, Murray, a big boxing fan, smiled and said: "No. I know you guys would. Tennis is doing just fine the way it is."
And it is. The standard here has been phenomenally high again and Djokovic drew universal praise for his blistering performance in putting David Ferrer away in three sets in the first semi-final on Thursday night. He has the benefit of an extra day's rest but Murray, for whom fitness and recovery have become an exact science, said he was confident he would be ready for the challenge.
"You never know how you're going to feel the next day," he admitted. "I'm sure I'll be tired in the morning, and stiff and sore, so I need to make sure I sleep as long as possible, do all of the recovery stuff. I'll hit very little beforehand, just try my best to be in the best possible condition for Sunday.
"Realistically, I'm probably not going to feel perfect because of how the match went tonight, but it's not to say I can't recover well enough to play my best tennis."
