REPORTS OF FED'S DEMISE MUCH EXAGGERATED

Federer 6 -2, 7 -5, 6 -2.

Federer danced past the 21-year-old Murray in the opening set, outlasted his rundown opponent in the second and briskly put an end to Murray's dreams of a first Grand Slam title in the third.

By the time the second set was over, obituary writers could sense that their copy was not going to appear in the next day's paper. In the face of headlines prematurely announcing his imminent decline, Federer, who was without a Grand Slam title this late in the year for the first time in four years, allowed his eminence to emerge.