Murray lifts Wimbledon title, makes history

World No 2 Andy Murray beat World No 1 Novak Djokovic 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 to win the 2013 Wimbledon Championship.

Murray became the first British man since Fred Perry to win the Wimbledon title, who won it in 1936.

The match lasted 3 hours and 9 mins.

On the hottest day of the year in Britain, with the mercury soaring toward 30 degrees Celsius, the world's two best players produced some scorching sinew-stretching action from the start and the first three games alone lasted 20 minutes.

The opening salvo of the Centre Court clash lasted 20 strokes as Murray went up 0-40 on the Serb's serve but Djokovic produced staunch defence to stave off his opponent's attack.

The duo did trade breaks in the third and fourth games, with each Murray winner being greeted by a chorus of 15,000 roars.

Second seed Murray got another chance to break to love in the seventh game and this time he pounced as the 2011 champion surrendered his serve by slapping a backhand into the net.

A set that initially looked like lasting forever ended exactly on the hour mark as Djokovic whipped a service return wide to give Murray, runner-up to Roger Federer last year, the one-set cushion.

SECOND SET

The battle between the two players who were born seven days apart in 1987 intensified in the second set as they went toe-to-toe from the baseline with 25-shot rallies being par for the course.

Djokovic, who survived a four hour 43 minute semi-final epic against Juan Martin Del Potro two days ago, showed his super-human ability to recover quickly as he ran down everything Murray could throw at him.

The Serb rattled Murray by going for the lines and broke for a 3-1 lead when Olympic and U.S. Open champion Murray flicked a forehand into the net.

Even when Djokovic slipped and skidded flat on to his stomach while trying to chase down a Murray winner, the six-times grand slam champion appeared unfazed as he quickly got back on to his feet to extend his lead to 4-1.

But Murray, who famously trains in the intense Miami heat even on Christmas Day, showed off his iron-man conditioning as he stormed back to level at 4-4, a Djokovic double fault on break point down handing him the break back in the seventh game.

While the cheering crowd, which included British Prime Minister David Cameron, got behind a pumped up Murray, Djokovic simply exploded in anger in the 11th game.

Convinced that Murray had gone long mid-rally at 15-15, he screamed at umpire Mohamed Lahyani "Whyyyyyyyyyyyy? What's going on?" as he gesticulated wildly to show what he thought the linesman had failed to see.

Murray ignored the uproar to break the fuming Serb and soon had the fans roaring when he wrapped up the 69-minute second set with a 125mph thunderbolt ace.

Photograph: Stefan Wermuth/Reuters