Andy Murray Wins US Open Title

Andy Murray ended 76 years of British sporting heartache on Monday night, defeating defending champion Novak Djokovic 7-6(12-10), 7-5, 2-6, 3-6, 6-2 in a 4-hour-54-minute epic to win the 2012 US Open — his first Grand Slam singles title, and the first by a British man since Fred Perry in 1936.

The final, delayed to Monday by gusting winds that made the ball nearly uncontrollable, started as a masterclass from the Scot. Murray edged a first set that included a 54-shot rally, then took the second. Djokovic, who had won his previous eight five-set matches, stormed back to level the match — and at that point the script felt horribly familiar: Murray had lost all four of his previous Grand Slam finals, including to Djokovic at that year's Australian Open.

But Murray held. He broke early in the decider and served out the championship to become the first British man of the Open era to win a major, and the first Briton of either sex since Virginia Wade in 1977.

"Relief is probably the best word I would use to describe how I'm feeling just now," Murray told reporters. "You do think: Is it ever going to happen?"

The win capped the summer of Murray's life: a Wimbledon final, Olympic gold in London, and now a Grand Slam. It also made 2012 the first season since 2003 with four different champions across the four majors — Djokovic, Nadal, Federer, and now Murray, the fourth pillar of the era's greatest rivalry.

Four hours and 54 minutes: joint-longest US Open men's final in history. Seventy-six years of waiting: over.