Looking at the scorecard – a 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 win over world No. 1 Novak Djokovic – you might think that he did it the easy way. Three sets. No tie breaks. What could be simpler?
Yet in all probability you watched at least some of the match – early reports suggest that more than 20million people did – and if so you will appreciate that it was an intense trial of nerve, skill and physical resilience. The final game, which swung this way and that like a hammock in a hurricane, contained as much tension as many a five-setter.
Murray endured a couple of wobbly moments on his serve in the first set. With the sun right in his eyes, he sent down successive double-faults at the start of one game. But he took control with a sequence of five successive clean winners – an ace, a smash, a forehand and two backhands – that emphasised just how complete his game has become.
"The story of my career is that I had a lot of tough losses," he said afterwards, "but the one thing I would say is that every year I always improved a little bit. They weren't major improvements, massive changes, but every year my ranking was going in the right direction."
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