Murray, a fiery 19-year-old Scot, is on the rise. His second career title -- earned Sunday by solving the service puzzle of Croatia's towering Ivo Karlovic -- was more proof of his ability. But he's not rising quite fast enough for some.

``The biggest thing I've seen from the English press is a time frame,'' Murray's coach, Brad Gilbert, said earlier in the week. `` `When exactly is it going to happen?' But Roger Federer doesn't make the time frame easy for anybody.''

``Andy Murray has tons of game,'' he said. ``But this is just the first chapter of the book. The book's not written yet.''

Murray had that advantage this week. The other top seeds in the draw -- Roddick, James Blake and Marat Safin -- had flown in from around the world after playing in Davis Cup matches. Fatigue almost certainly played a part in their inability to survive until the final.

That shouldn't be a problem next year. The SAP Open will be held a week later, giving fans a needed buffer from Pebble Beach and players a welcome break after Davis Cup action.

hat shouldn't be a problem next year. The SAP Open will be held a week later, giving fans a needed buffer from Pebble Beach and players a welcome break after Davis Cup action.

But even without a juicy marquee match such as Safin-Roddick, Sunday's crowd was boisterous. And it was treated to a highly entertaining final.

Karlovic is a praying mantis, a 6-foot-10 oddity who unfolds his body on the court and unloads with the game's most vicious serve, dropping down from the sky like a missile.

``He has the best serve in tennis,'' Murray said. ``You don't see serves coming from that angle. You can't prepare.''

Karlovic is considered a freak show, a tennis serve disconnected from an actual player. It's an unfair tag. Though his return game was atrocious early Sunday, Karlovic gained confidence as the match progressed. And he was wickedly dangerous at the net -- who can get the ball past the enormous frame? And, of course, he had 26 aces, topping out at 142 mph.

It definitely creates a different kind of tennis. Earlier in the week one of Karlovic's victims, Mardy Fish, said playing the Croat wasn't really like playing tennis at all.

A Karlovic match has its own form of tension, as the pressure to break his serve mounts with each game. Karlovic won the first-set tiebreaker, getting the mini-break to go up 4-3. So when Karlovic broke Murray in the first game of the second set, it looked like he was on his way to his first tournament title. The red-and-white-checked Croatian fans in the crowd were going wild. And in his head, Karlovic was too.

``I thought, I'm going to win,'' Karlovic said. ``Maybe it was a little bit too early in my head to start focusing on that.''

Murray came back immediately to break Karlovic and won the second set 6-4. In the third-set tiebreaker, Murray got a mini-break to go up 2-1 and Karlovic started to fall apart, double-faulting to put Murray up 5-2.

After the victory, Murray wrapped himself in the red and gold Royal Flag of Scotland. In his news conference Murray was asked to choose what he would most like to achieve: ¹ win Wimbledon, ² be ranked No. 1 in the world or ³ lead Britain to a Davis Cup title.

``Probably winning Wimbledon,'' he replied. ``That's probably the biggest deal.''

Good answer. Now hurry up and get busy.