Andy Murray was full of relief after finally winning a grand slam title following a thrilling five-set victory over Novak Djokovic in the US Open.
Despite his Olympics triumph in London last month, Murray was the underdog heading into the match having lost in four consecutive finals in a major tournament. He looked to be in the ascendancy after taking the first two sets but needed to show tremendous character in the fifth to seal a 7-6 (12/10) 7-5 2-6 3-6 6-2 victory.
"Right now, there's a lot of relief and I'm still buzzing a bit from the match - the atmosphere out there was unbelievable," he told Sky Sports 1.
"It would have been a tough one to lose so I'm so, so happy I managed to pull though in the end. The body's hurting a bit but it was worth it."
Murray admitted there have been moments when he questioned whether he would ever lift a grand slam title, pointing to his loss to Roger Federer at Wimbledon this year - his fourth loss in a grand slam final.
And the 25-year-old believes his task of winning a major was made more complicated by the fact he was regularly competing against three of the greatest players of all time - Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Djokovic - in the latter stages.
He said: "There were times, after Wimbledon this year, for a few days afterwards where you think: "Is it ever going to happen? Competing against some of the best players of all times makes it harder.
"I don't want to be disrespectful to any other players but when Federer won his first slam it was against (Mark) Philippoussis, who had also never won one, Rafa against (Mariano) Puerta, who had never won one, and Djokovic against (Jo-Wilfried) Tsonga.
"When I've been in slam finals they've been against Roger, who's one of the greatest players ever, and also against Novak so it's been incredibly tough for me mentally and there's no easy matches.
"I just managed to fight through in the end today and hopefully I can push on from here."
