Andy Murray blamed a misfiring return of serve after he suffered final heartbreak at the hands of Novak Djokovic, losing in straight sets at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami on Sunday.
The world number one bullied Murray's serve throughout to clinch his first title since the Australian Open 6-1 7-6 (7/4).
"I didn't return well today, which is normally one of the best parts of my game. That was the difference, in my opinion," said Murray on www.atptour.com.
"[I was] not getting into enough of his service games because I missed too many returns.
"If I was able to get into more longer rallies on his service games, then maybe it would have been a different result in the second set."
In the women's draw Heather Watson exited in the third round as she was beaten 6-0 6-2 by top seed Victoria Azarenka.
Watson had caused a shock in the second round, dumping out 27th seed Lucie Safarova 6-2 6-1, but she met her match in the world number one.
Elena Baltacha suffered a first-round exit as she was beaten 6-7 (7/5) 6-3 6-2 by Shuai Zheng.