Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic Sony Ericsson Open final Miami

And this match felt like an important one in the context of Murray?s ongoing battle with his old foe.

Win, and he would give himself a real sense of progress against the man who dominated the world last year. Lose, and it would be back to his old persona as the man who pulls up just short of the highest accolades on the biggest stages.

And lose it was, although you had to admire the way Murray held his ground in the second set, going toe-to-toe against the best returner the game has seen.

He saved five break points in the course of it to earn a shot at a tie-break. A pattern was emerging by this stage: Djokovic was taking almost all the short points, and Murray almost all the long ones.

In the end, the decisive difference was that Djokovic landed big, unreturnable serves just when he needed them most of all. And that?s exactly what he produced to take the tie-break 7-4, stifling the Murray revival at the two-hour, 20-minute mark.

The quality of play was outstanding from the off, as Murray produced a wickedly spun lob in the first game to outwit the onrushing Djokovic. The ground both men were covering was remarkable in this early stage, but it was also unsustainable in the furnace-like heat.

Murray soon began to throttle back a bit on his ground strokes. Perhaps he was guilty of reverting to type as the chess player, the worker of the court, the man probing away in search of weakness. But Djokovic wasn?t wasting time putting out feelers: the second he saw a gap, he promptly let fly.

Were early nerves a feature of Murray?s matches in this tournament? He lost a sequence of six early games in the quarter-final against Janko Tipsarevic, and against Djokovic there was a similar patch where he went from 1-1 to 1-6 in a rush.

But if Djokovic has had a weakness in this tournament, it has been the obverse of Murray?s: he has started brilliantly in every match, but struggled to maintain those early standards throughout.

At the end of that opening set, Djokovic gave his opponent a challenging stare, as if to say ?Who is the boss here?? The first 36 minutes had made it very clear that Murray was the junior partner in the on-court relationship.

But there was a change in momentum when he survived more pressure to hold his first game of the second set. Now the points were far more balanced, and Djokovic was showing the occasional sign of anxiousness, gesturing to his player?s box and cursing whenever Murray notched up another game.

But Djokovic has a way of surviving close calls in a contest. Even when he looks as if he is about to faint, he can still compose himself and put together those irresistible one-two punches: the accurate serves into the corners, usually followed up by a forehand winner.

Even if Murray was able to help himself by winning the longer rallies, he couldn?t stop Djokovic from bullying him with that serve.

Perhaps it was merciful that the match didn?t go to a third set, because both players were gasping for air by the time the match moved towards its third hour. Footwork that had been agile and precise in the first set became sluggish and leaden.

There was a telling moment when Murray served out wide then found himself playing a volley from the baseline when another laser-guided Djokovic return came fizzing back at his toes.

Rafael Nadal was reduced to the same desperate measure during the Australian Open final: a sure sign that the legs have been reduced almost to jelly.

?I feel like I?m a lot closer than I was at this stage last year,? Murray said afterwards. ?I was controlling a lot of the points towards the end, which is a positive sign for me.?

On Saturday, Agnieszka Radwanska recorded the most significant victory of her career when she beat Maria Sharapova in the women?s final.

Like most of Sharapova?s opponents, Radwanska spent the match scrambling and retrieving until one of those huge ground strokes skewed out. Unlike most opponents, she succeeded.

Where Caroline Wozniacki couldn?t quite weather the storm in Thursday?s semi-final, Radwanska?s defence was almost impenetrable.

She has an unusual way of dealing with deep balls, by squatting back on her haunches and playing the ball from a near-sitting position, and she hardly missed a ball all match.

The win came up by a 7-5, 6-4 ?margin, leaving Radwanska with an impressive record this season: 26 wins and only four defeats, all of them against world No?1 Victoria ?Azarenka.

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