Maria Sharapova, Venus Williams among stars who honor science achievement at Breakthrough Prize Ceremony

To some observers, the ATP’s “Big 4” finally became official in 2012 when Andy Murray joined his peers Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal as a Grand Slam champion after winning the US Open over Djokovic.

In his first tournaments after that triumph, Murray reached the semifinals of Tokyo and then went a step further in Shanghai by advancing to the championship match. Along the way, he posted his second consecutive win against world No. 1 Federer.

His final-round opponent would be Djokovic, who rebounded perfectly from his US Open loss by winning Beijing the week prior to Shanghai. The Serb advanced to the final match without the loss of a set.

Going into their fifth match of the year against each other, Djokovic and Murray were deadlocked at two wins apiece. The first set in Shanghai was a see-saw affair, with seven breaks of serve between the two. Murray managed to be the one to come out on top, taking the opener 7-5.

In the second, momentum stayed with the Scot as he broke to take a 4-3 lead. Serving for the match at 5-4, Murray earned a match point, but Djokovic fought it off and evened up the set, eventually pushing it to a tiebreak, which would play like a mini-match of its own.

A 20-minute affair saw Djokovic pull off more daring escapes as he saved four more match points. Up 12-11, the Serb hit a swinging volley Murray couldn’t touch to push the final to a third set.

In the early stages of the decider, the two remained on serve until Djokovic got the break to go up 4-3, leaving him two holds away from the title. He’d only need one as he held serve, then broke Murray to capture his third ATP Masters 1000 crown of the year.

In his 13 career runner-up finishes, this was only the fourth time Murray lost the match after winning the first set. The first two times happened in 2007 and 2010, with the third happening at Wimbledon 2012 against Federer.

Djokovic won his seventh different Masters title, with Rome and Cincinnati the only ones missing from his collection at this point.

Dating back to 2011, this was Djokovic’s eighth Masters title out of 15 events contested.

Follow Van on Twitter: @Van_Sias

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