ANDY MURRAY admitted he never gave Andrey Golubev any major opportunities to get into the game after easily defending his St Petersburg Open title.

The world tennis No4 eased to a 6-1 6-1 victory over Kazakhstan’s Golubev in less than 57 minutes to claim his fifth title of the season.

Golubev, ranked a lowly 150, had beaten Olivier Rochus in the first round before causing a huge upset with the defeat of former world No1 Marat Safin.

However, he found the Scot a different proposition with the defending champion winning without breaking sweat.

The 21-year-old admitted his opponent may have experienced nerves but he knew he was in complete control.

He said: “It was his first final so he was probably a little bit nervous.

“But he could take a lot of confidence, he had played really well all week.

“I played very consistently, I served pretty well, I didn’t give him too many chances and obviously won pretty comfortably.”

Murray, though, admitted there had been a lot of expectation coming into the final with the Scot expected to romp home.

“I had a lot of pressure coming into this match,” said Murray. “I was the favourite and he didn’t have anything to lose.

“The match was close in the beginning of both sets but once I was able to take the lead I felt more comfortable.”

Just a week after emerging victorious from the Madrid Masters, Murray had few problems in the first set of the final.

Golubev held serve in the first game of the second set – but that was as good as it got as the Briton reeled off four games in a row.

Murray had insisted he faced a tough test yesterday – but it did not turn out that way as he eased to match point in the seventh game.

Although the Kazakh saved it and had the chance to reduce the arrears to 2-5 – he double faulted – and Murray took the next match point on offer to wrap up the title.

Victory made Murray the first Briton to win back-to-back tour titles since Mark Cox in 1975.

Golubev, who is based in Bra, Italy, acknowledged he had come up short.

“I was playing well all week but I was just off. I think I ran out of fuel,” he said.

“Murray didn’t make any mistakes and was more stable during the entire match, especially on his serve. I’m still more happy than disappointed.”

Next up for Murray is the Paris Masters, where he has a bye into the second round.