Murray: No Fed regrets

An exhausted Murray went down 7-5 6-2 to the Russian less than 24 hours after the classic Federer group match, which came after the British player had already qualified for the last four.

"No. No. I beat probably the best player of all time. I have no regrets about doing that," Murray said of Federer, the former world number one and 13-times Grand Slam champion.

"Like I said yesterday, to beat him means a similar amount to winning a tournament like this.

"Ideally I would have liked to have beaten him easier, and given myself a slightly better chance to prepare for this match, but I'm proud that I gave 110 per cent in the match.

"I think other players might not have taken that option. But I'm happy that I did."

The defeat cost Murray, 21, the biggest pay day of his career. He had been in line to receive $1.34 million as an unbeaten winner of the glittering end-of-year showpiece.

"It looked like he was so tired, he was about to die on the court," Davydenko commented.

However, Murray believes beating Federer gives him a psychological boost for next season, when he is hoping to end Britain's 76-year Grand Slam title drought.

The Scot has raised expectations after winning his first Masters series titles back-to-back and also reaching the US Open final as he climbed to world number four.

He won a career-high five titles this season, second only to top-ranked Rafael Nadal, and became just the third player after Nadal and David Nalbandian to beat Federer three times in one year.

"The year as a whole has been awesome. I would have signed up for this year," Murray said.

"At the end of last year, if someone would have told me I was going to be four in the world, won the matches I had done, be in my first Slam final and beat Federer three times, I would have taken that.

"I hope I can build on it next year. I'll take a little bit of time off now, work as hard as possible to get ready for the beginning of next season, try and put on a little bit more weight, try and get physically stronger and see what happens."