Whatever way Andy Murray's year finishes this weekend - and sadly, good things always have to come to an end - there is one truth of which British tennis can be certain. In 70 years, it has never had it so good.

Murray may come to a grinding halt in the Masters Cup semi-finals today; if he can find something from somewhere to survive Nikolay Davydenko's relentless back-court play, then Novak Djokovic or Gilles Simon will lay in wait in the final another 24 hours' hence. Victory would bring him untold riches, $1,340,000 (about £902,000) in all, and vibrant acclaim. Defeat would be difficult to swallow and leave him with a hollow feeling. It should not.

In three matches on his debut here and as he has traversed the globe gathering momentum, titles and notoriety in the past six months, the 21-year-old Scot has given the sport in this country something it has flirted with for decades: a real meaning, a true champion in waiting, a big star.

Murray's 4-6, 7-6, 7-5 victory over Roger Federer in the final round-robin match of the red group yesterday contained so much to glory in, so much to appreciate, so many shots of class, a few duff ones and such raw-boned courage that, in its very different way, it is up there nudging the Wimbledon men's singles final between the Swiss and Rafael Nadal as the best of the year.

It would take a brave man to console Federer with the suggestion that he had played an heroic part in both of these occasions, for he ended both feeling as if his world had just caved in. How did the 27-year-old Swiss find so much to keep Murray waiting until the third hour and the eighth match point to prise his fingers from the trophy he was aiming to win for a fifth time, joining Pete Sampras and Ivan Lendl? Not in his six previous consecutive appearances in this finale had Federer failed to reach the last four.

The first full house of the week at the Qizhong Stadium was enticed, largely, in the hope that Federer would live to fight another day. It left having witnessed Murray become only the third player in history, joining Nadal, the world No1 from Spain, and David Nalbandian, of Argentina, to have defeated the 13-times grand-slam champion three times in a year.

It was remarkable that Federer did not run out of puff long before Murray finally squeezed him too tightly. At the end of the second set, when Murray ran off the final four points of the tie-break, which included, at 5-3, perhaps the finest instinctive backhand stop volley one has seen, the Swiss was flat on his stomach, face buried into his forearms, needing life to be rubbed into the muscles just above his left buttock. At 2-0 down in the third set, as another set of new balls was required, he was sitting in a linesman's chair, face dark, mood darker.

Credit to Federer, though, he has never retired during a match. “Guess you've got to drill me one in the eye, then maybe, but otherwise I don't quit,” he said later. Murray knew it, but Federer suddenly played as if released from a burden and from 3-0 down ran off four straight games to leave Murray smacking his head with his racket, perplexed. At 4-3, 40-15, Federer was within sight of the match. Murray would hear nothing of it, though. He gave himself two chances to break but missed a couple of backhands and then on a third, at which he was at full stretch, the scurrying Scot tossed up a ridiculously high lob that Federer thrashed over the baseline.

Which brought us to the tenth game of the third set, in which match points mounted, one upon another, second serves, backhand misses, stunning aces on the sixth and the seventh and another ace to take Federer to game point, which he closed out. Murray held to 15 and this time, Federer buckled. “I would have played Davydenko had I won, wouldn't I?” the Swiss said. “That wouldn't have been much fun.”

The fun is all Murray's now, if one can call it that. “I won't know how much this has taken out of me until tomorrow,” he said. “I changed some things against him today, you have to do that against perhaps the greatest player of all time or he's going to figure you out.” No one has figured out Murray yet. Your go, Nikolay.