Andy Murray picked up his sixth title of the year and the fourteenth of his career with a comprehensive victory over Mikhail Youzhny at the inaugural Valencia Open.

The world No 4, playing in his first tournament for nearly two months after recovering from a wrist injury exacerbated during the US Open, 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 then 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 withstood a barrage of power from Fernando Verdasco yesterday before coming through in three sets and looked more comfortable today, cementing his break with a stunning cross-court forehand.

Murray was well in control by now and he broke again for a 5-1 lead courtesy of another error. Youzhny 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.

Youzhny simply could not generate any degree of dominance on his serve and he quickly found himself two breaks behind at 3-0, but had two chances to break back in the next game. Yet Murray held firm, and although Youzhny did manage to get his name on the scoreboard in his next service game it was merely delaying the inevitable, and an ace sealed a most dominant of victories for the British No 1.