ESPN2 – Aussie Open final – Murray and Federer :”Epic.”

This one is worth staying up late for or at least set your DVR.

Australian Open Final: Roger Federer faces Andy Murray is for many tennis fans a dream match.

Let’s face it there can be no doubt that Murray would love to get that “best player not to win a major” tag off his resume.

Swiss world number one, Roger Federer is getting ready to face British title aspirant Andy Murray in the men’s final of Australian Open. For Federer, it is the run for the 16th grand slam title, while for Murray it will be a title to end 74 year’s long waiting of his country, Britain for a major after Fred Perry’s 1936 US Open.

Federer, who showed a strong performance against Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to land in the final jokingly said after the match that Murray will have to wait for another grad slam tournament to water his country’s title drought for years, which he called to be something like ‘150,000 years”.

On the other hand, Murray had been making an impressive show all though the tournament. Murray lost only one set against Croatia’s Marin Cilic in the semifinal match before taking him out of the tournament . In the quarterfinals, Murray had swashed away Rafel Nadal with a great show in the field.

This has been a great another great tournament for the team of ESPN2 and the Tennis Channel.

ESPN2 has proved to any doubters that they are the premier network for tennis. They have the best team of tennis minds in the business.

Cliff Drysdale – who has been with ESPN since its first tennis telecast in 1979 – and sportscasting legend Dick Enberg lead the ESPN2 team. Chris Fowler continues to grow in his role as host and a play by play man.

Chris McKendry is a great host keeping things moving along.

But the key to the ESPN2 teams success are their analyst group headed by the best in the business, Darren Cahill, Mary Carillo, Mary Joe Fernandez, Brad Gilbert and Patrick McEnroe and Pam Shriver enhances the networks coverage.

The Tennis Channel has also done a fine job led by Tennis Channel mainstay Bill Macatee and the fun and outspoken Martina Navratilova. Navratilova, whose name conjures images of legendary on-court accomplishments, won more singles championships in her playing days than any professional tennis player in history. Also veteran Tennis Channel play-by-play man Leif Shiras, and analyst and features reporter Justin Gimelstob did a great job.

Also worth noting was another great broadband effort by ESPN360 which gave monster coverage and kudos as well to an expanded effort by www.tennischannel.com. They have really stepped up their game.