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Tennis

Andy Murray picked up his sixth title of the year with an easy win over Mikhail Youzhny at the inaugural Valencia Open.

The world number four, playing in his first tournament for nearly two months after recovering from a wrist injury, looked impressive throughout in a 6-3 6-2 win over the Russian.

Murray, whose last title came at the Masters event in Canada in August, can now celebrate winning six titles in one season for the first time in his career.

The pair had met only once before, in St Petersburg in 2007, with Murray winning in three sets before going on to take the title.

Youzhny is unpredictable and, although his impressive single-handed backhand was in evidence in the early stages, he came unstuck in the fourth game as Murray gained an early break.

Murray was well in control by now and it was no surprise when he broke again for a 5-1 lead courtesy of another error from Youzhny.

The Russian put up more of a fight in the next game and retrieved one of the breaks when his opponent shanked a forehand after a long baseline rally.

Murray made no mistake second time round, though, clinching the first set with an ace.

Youzhny, ranked 23rd in the world, has been in good form, reaching the final in Tokyo last month and then winning his fifth ATP World Tour title at home in Moscow.

But he was immediately under pressure at the start of the second set and could not prevent Murray picking up another break.

The Russian simply could not generate any degree of dominance on his serve and he quickly found himself two breaks behind at 3-0.

Youzhny had two chances to break back in the next game but Murray held firm, although the 27-year-old did manage to get his name on the scoreboard in his next service game.

It was merely delaying the inevitable, however, and an ace sealed a most dominant of victories for the British number one.