London, England (Sports Network) - Scotland's Andy Murray tuned up for a run at the Wimbledon title with a straight-set victory over American James Blake in Sunday's final at the Queen's Club.
The top-seeded Murray notched a 7-5, 6-4 triumph for his fourth title of 2009 and the 12th of his career. He improved to 4-1 in title matches this year, also winning in Doha, Rotterdam and Miami, with the lone setback coming to Rafael Nadal in Indian Wells.
Murray became the first Briton to win the Wimbledon tuneup since Bunny Austin in 1938. Next, he'll try to end the long British drought on the famed grass courts of the All England Club, where a male member of the empire has not won since Fred Perry in 1936.
"It's pretty special," said Murray. "There have been some great grass-court players from Britain the last 70-odd years. Tim [Henman] and Greg [Rusedski] were both very good grass-court players. The names that are on the trophy, there's a lot of great, great players. So to be on that trophy is great. Obviously, because it's not happened that a British player has won for so long, that makes it nicer."
As for the pressure at Wimbledon, Murray is not about to let it bother him.
"I'm not planning on getting caught up in the whole hype and the pressure, because I don't think that that helps if you do," Murray added. "I'm going to try and just concentrate on playing and winning matches. You can let the pressure affect you if you want to. You can let the expectation get to you if you really want to, but I'm just going to play tennis and not worry about the rest of the stuff."
Blake, seeded sixth this week, was playing in his second final at the Queen's Club. He was previously beaten by Australia's Lleyton Hewitt in the 2006 title match.
A close first set Sunday went Murray's way late. The two traded early breaks of serve, but Murray capitalized on another break chance late. Of the 60 points played in the opening set, Murray won 32 and Blake captured 28.
Murray converted the lone break-point chance for either player in the second set to take a 4-3 lead and held serve from there to complete the match in 67 minutes.
"A match like this, top players, it comes down to a couple of points, who plays those big break points better," noted Blake. "I don't think I saved one break point today. He just played those points a little better than me today."
Sunday marked just the second meeting between the two. Blake won the first with a straight-set triumph three years ago on clay in Hamburg.
The setback for Blake was second in as many title matches this year. He also lost to Albert Montanes in the Estoril final on clay prior to the French Open and fell to 10-14 all-time in ATP finals.
Blake was a first-round loser at Roland Garros and will hope for a much better result at Wimbledon next week. He was a second-round loser last year to Rainer Schuettler and twice has been as far as the third round.
Murray has played Wimbledon just three times previously, but he has progressed each time. After a third-round loss in his 2005 debut, he reached the fourth round in 2006 and missed the 2007 tournament because of a wrist injury. Last year, he was beaten in straight sets by Nadal in the quarterfinals.
Sunday's victory for Murray was worth a first prize of $118,000.