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Top seed Andy Murray defeated James Blake to win the Aegon Championships and become the first British player in 71 years to win the title at Queen's Club. Murray, the World No. 3, captured his first title on grass and his first on British soil with a 7-5, 6-4 victory over the American, who finished runner-up at Queen's for the second time.

Not since Bunny Austin in 1938 had a British player been crowned King at Queen's.

"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. And obviously because it's not happened that a British player has won for so long, that makes it nicer."

It was Murray's fourth title of what has been an impressive year so far, as well the 12th of his career.

"It was a very good week" said Murray. "In terms of the tennis today, maybe it wasn't the best match of the week, but it's very difficult against James because he doesn't let you into too much of a rhythm. As a whole, it was very good. I served well all week and moved well. It was a good transition from the clay to the grass."

In what had been termed the "three-quarter British final" because of Blake's English mother, Betty, it was Murray who began in determined fashion, breaking Blake's serve in the third game of the match. However, the American hit straight back, converting at the first attempt in the following game as Murray dropped serve for only the second time in the tournament.

Blake, the runner-up to Lleyton Hewitt on his last visit to Queen's Club in 2006, came within two points of clinching the first set at 5-4, 15-30 on the Murray serve. But the British No. 1 averted the danger and immediately went about putting pressure on the No. 6 seed in the following game. The 22-year-old Scot broke for the second time to lead 6-5 and made no mistake on his serve, sealing the first set in 35 minutes as Blake netted a forehand.

With Murray's extraordinary record of having lost only one of 21 grass court matches after winning the first set, an historic victory seemed only a matter of time.

He gained the crucial break in the seventh game of the second set as Blake's sliced backhand approach clipped the top of the net, and Murray served out for the match with aplomb three games later, beginning with two of his seven aces. When Blake's backhand return fell into the net on the first of three match points, Murray's victory was complete in 1 hour, 7 minutes.

Murray's victory means he became the first player since Lleyton Hewitt in 2000 to win the title without dropping a set, and joins John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lendl, Stefan Edberg and Boris Becker as the only other players to have achieved such a feat since 1979. He also became the first Briton to win a grass court title since Greg Rusedski in Newport in 2005.

Blake, who has now lost two grass court finals here as well as in Halle, said: "Andy played well. I probably said yesterday, a match like this against top players, it comes down to a couple of points, who plays those big break points better. I don't think I saved one break point today. He just played those points a little better than me today."

"That's frustrating, but when it just turns on a couple points here and there, I feel like I'm right there. I have another week of practice and preparation for Wimbledon. Hopefully I'll be ready and playing this well or even better there."