By Chris Oddo                          Photo Credit: Michael Regan/ Getty

(March 31, 2012)—Two recurring themes ran parallel today as the Sony Ericsson Open final in Miami drew to a conclusion: Novak Djokovic is the best player in tennis on any surface, and Andy Murray still has a long way to go to fulfill his promise.

Djokovic's 6-1, 7-6(4) victory—his third Miami title and eleventh Masters title overall—was just as much about Djokovic ramping up his level to begin a march to become the first male to win four consecutive Grand Slam titles since 1969 as it was about Murray's inability to seize the initiative and give himself a much-needed confidence boost heading into the clay-court season.

"There was three or four long games there [in the first set], all deuce games, that I had the chance to win and didn't," said a disappointed but not downtrodden Murray afterwards. "That was the difference in the first set, and then the second set was much closer."

Murray's chances missed were Djokovic's chances taken, and the Serb cruised to a quick lead by breaking Murray in back-to-back games to take the first set, 6-1.

In the second, Murray's inability to make first serves kept him under pressure in almost all of his service games, but some inspired baseline grinding enabled him to keep Djokovic at bay.

Four Djokovic errors helped Murray out of a 15-40 hole in the third game of the second set, and Murray was able to escape unharmed when facing single break points in the fifth game and the eleventh game.

But his lack of a return game made things tough for him.

"I didn't return well today," Murray would later say, "which is normally one of the best parts of my game.  That was the difference, in my opinion."

Murray did not see a break point in the second set, and he often appeared to either guess wrong on the Djokovic serve or choose the wrong return to play. For Murray, who was winning his fair share of the protracted rallies, his inability to get into rallies on the Djokovic serve was a critical factor.

Lots of credit should go to Djokovic however. The Serb talked about improving his serve numbers after his semifinal in Miami with Juan Monaco, and he did just that today.

"Luckily for me I came out with some good serving when I needed to," said Djokovic. "I think I served over 70 percent of first serves in, which was really important today to get a couple of free points on that serve and set up a good second shot."

Djokovic consistently moved his serve around the box to keep Murray off balance, and he was particularly effective with his slice serve wide to Murray’s forehand in the deuce court.

"It was not getting into enough of his service games because I missed too many returns, Murray said. "You know, if I was able to get into more longer rallies on his service games, then maybe it would have been a different result in the second set."

Even so, Murray had chances to push this match to a third set. But in the end, he lacked the ability to stare down the pressure and execute when it mattered most. 

Case in point: the second set tiebreaker. After winning a quad-crunching 25-stroke rally with a miraculously good slice drop shot winner, Murray proceeded to serve up a deflating double fault on the next point.

Djokovic seized the momentum from there, winning his next four service points to close out the match with little drama.

It was just the type you’d expect from a world No. 1 who has his sights set on having another fantastic year.

For Murray, it was yet another reminder of just how good he’ll have to be to get where he wants to go. “I feel like I'm a lot closer than I was at this stage last year,” said a hopeful Murray.

Now that he knows it is still not good enough, perhaps we’ll see an even more determined Murray this summer.